Community Organizer

While I wait for my security clearance so I can walk on the African continent, I've been volunteering for the New York City's public advocate's office. The public advocate is the vice mayor of NYC - the president of the city council.
A large part of what the office does is constituent services - we serve as the city's ombudsman and respond to NYC residents' complaints against city agencies.
Besides manning the city 311 hotline and managing the pagillion complaint cases, I also got a taste of community organizing. I'd like to think it's what Obama did after he got out of college in Chicago, but my utter abysmal communicative abilities and less than perfect temperament compared to him make this comparison moot.
Anyway, one evening I escorted a staff to Asian Brooklyn - Sunset Park - for the Asian Pacific Heritage Month celebration. The purpose of the trip was to present a public service city award for an Asian American healthcare professional by the name of Tommy Cen. Initially an intern mistakenly printed the name Tommy Chen on the award - and I was elated when I saw that and immediately grabbed the award certificate and displayed in front of my cubicle - to the dismay of the staff. Fortunately, Bill De Blasio has not signed the award yet so it's not official. Still, I will frame this public service award.

Today though was my first true community organizing experience. When I got to the office in the morning, I was drafted by the Bronx team to go to Co-op city Bronx, which is all the way North near Westchester. Apparently the workers there are on strike - technically a employer forced lockout - due to a 4 year wage freeze. Anyway, the entire trip takes 1.5 hours one way and when we got there, it was obvious why we HAD TO BE THERE. Trash bags were piled mountains high and rodents/insects were infesting the apartments in the largest co-op housing development in the world.
We were hanging out fliers and speaking to the union/tenant organizers. The union leaders were at first very skeptical of the intentions of our office and asked me how much I was getting paid to do this; When I told them that I was volunteering, instantly the leader's face changed and all of suddenly I was being respected. Apparently the stereotype of the incompetent corrupt politician running the city runs so deep in the psyche of these people.

After we got done with co-op city that took most of the day, I was drafted by our case manager in charge of ACS (Administration of Children Services) to go to Brooklyn to address the closing of daycare centers due to a proposed $9 million budget cut. I was supposed to represent the office at a particular parents meeting at a daycare center with a high chance of being closed. I barely accepted the offer and took another hour to venture to this part of Brooklyn that is 90% Black Carribean American which I've never been to. Standing in front of a passionately angry crowd of parents, I was intimidated on multiple fronts..especially considering the fact that I was representing the city as an Asian in front of 100% Carribean Americans and was probably 10 years younger than most of the people I was supposed to be rallying/lecturing to. I was sweating profusely after walking outside in the sultry weather and the nervousness didn't help.

Luckily, an ACS middle aged lady was very supportive of my cause and the office. She probably sensed my inexperience and nervousness and actually provided the introduction/icebreaker that I was supposed to say...That made my life so much easier so that I didn't seem like a random intruder totally overdressed for the occasion - someone you can immediately spot and pin down as a surrogate of the elite Manhattan political establishment. So this lady saved my life and I was at least given the greenlight to hand out my petition that everyone was supposed to sign in addition to a plethora of other fliers and information. Though much less nervous, I was still put on the hotspot during the meeting a few times and had to pull some De-Blasio or Obama style inspirational speech out of my ass.
In the end, it was a transformational experience to say the least