Jake Winkelman: Beth Uriel Blog Post

My time at Beth Uriel, while hard to synthesize in its entirety, will have a lasting impact on my approach to youth development work. I will long cherish the opportunity I had to spend time with an incredible, diverse group of young men and learn about their stories and perspectives on contemporary South Africa. Not only did my conversations with these young men enhance my thinking on issues ranging from education to hip hop music, but these interactions also led to some challenging yet productive reflections on my personal approach to youth development work.

            While I had a fairly extensive background in mentoring, teaching, and tutoring young people prior to my time at Beth Uriel, some of my preconceived notions about what is and is not effective in empowering youth in these contexts were questioned and altered significantly. At Beth Uriel I was able to spend a good portion of my time merely building relationships with the guys in the house, which I greatly appreciated. Having built a number of very close relationships with the guys at the house it will definitely be difficult leaving without knowing when or if I will come back to continue working with some of them especially since some of these relationships were in their formative stages at the end of my service placement experience.

            The fact that I might not be able to return to Beth Uriel, either as a visitor or a full time volunteer, in the near future has forced me to think a lot about how I can have a sustained impact on an organization without physically being present at the organization for an extended period of time. In reflecting about this issue I have not come to any definitive conclusion, but I have thought about the ways in which service learning experiences and volunteering experiences can be counter-productively me-focused endeavors. In the past when I have worked with youth I have had the opportunity to continue my relationships with organizations and the kids I have worked with because of advantageous geographical proximity, which has allowed me to view my role in helping these kids as something that is my personal responsibility moving forward. However, given the geographical constraints of my future relationships with Beth Uriel and the young men I had the pleasure of working with, I have had to think about my role in assisting these guys in a very different light.

            As a result, I hope that I can assist the Stanford students who are placed at Beth Uriel in the future get a more clear sense of the guys they will be working with and the specific needs of these individuals so they can be more informed service-providers from the beginning of their time in Cape Town. I also hope to continue to interact with the guys from Beth Uriel over Facebook and email so that I can continue to support them in their endeavors even if I can't work with them face-to-face. I am hopeful that in both working with future Stanford students and keeping in contact with Beth Uriel residents over social media I can have a more healthy, sustained impact on the organization.