I was a part of the Serve! Making It Work program.  Although the days were often filled with challenges and hot weather, I enjoyed every single one of those 6 weeks.  At first, I just went about doing what was required of me but soon I began to realize that I had created this close bond with so many of the other team members.  We had gone through many challenges and pretty much every day together.  The experience was fun.  I also began noticing that what we were doing for the community was not just doing something- but instead affecting someone’s life in a positive way-be it youth or seniors. 

Serve not only benefited the community around us but the team members as well.  The many workshops and activities we went through and just the people that we have met have changed our ideas and opened many different perspectives and opportunities that we may not have had before. 

The skills I have gained at Serve will for sure benefit me in the future.  I had a lot of fun in this program and I hope that in the future many others will as well.

By Swathilekha

The Making it Work program is almost done. It’s gone very fast. I learned so many new things to give me useful experiences and skills. We have learned about anger management, assertiveness, writing cover letters and resumes among more things. We have volunteered at Seniors Bingo at Central Neighborhood House, played with children at St.Bartholomew’s Children’s Centre, grew the plants at the park near Eglinton West station , rooted out the wild plants at City Hall, practiced how to grow the young plants at the greenhouse in High Park etc.

We have watched the TAXI Project theatre show, and films at National Film Board were great and helpful for me. We have many workshops about everything in life while we have many funny games in Serve!. We have many times done team work--for instance we played games to inspire others (i.e. to take the ball at the chair in the bottom of the team).  We have a team meeting and feedback circle every Tuesday; get feedback and conduct our goal (idea) every Wednesday between the leader and the other members in our team

I was interested about Adventureworks! in the fourth week. It was a helpful thing for me because I wished I can climb and walk on the rope on the top of the tree like the people in the circus. It helped me know one thing, that I wasn’t afraid of the height when I was there. It made me have a special feeling like I was flying around the trees, like the small bird have freedom.  I had seen the team work that makes me remember one quote: only you can’t do everything but you have teamwork you can do every thing. I Love that useful thing and it makes my dream come true.

I learned many new things from the workshop at Serve. We had learned how to write a good resume and cover letter for ourselves at Y.E.S.  The workshops also gave me many ideas or advice about body language; that protecting my sex means how to use the condom and many real things I can apply it for my real life and I learned more experiences and skills for myself.

By:  Michelle

My time at Serve! was fun and exciting! I really enjoyed doing the gardening on the green roof at City Hall. I felt a closer connection with the green spaces of Toronto. My experiences with the youth and elderly allowed me to broaden my perspective of the community and gained a sense of belonging within the community. While at St. Bartholomew’s Children’s Centre I enjoyed helping and interacting with all the youth. At Central Neighborhood Housing I had a lot of fun calling out the bingo numbers and seeing the seniors become happy when they win.

The trip to Adventureworks! was very tiring but exciting. The team building activities were really interesting and fun. Having my team cheer me on as I completed a ropes course was very uplifting. Although most of the workshops seemed a bit boring, I actually liked attending them. I found them very informative and useful.

By Jerome

I have got a lot of things from my experience in Making It Work. I have learned so much about myself, finding out new strengths and weaknesses that I had not thought of.  Now I have a new image of myself. I also learned many useful things, which will help me in the future such as strategies to find a job, teamwork and a variety of information about eating disorders, sex, racism, etc.

Being in this program wasn’t only useful and informative but also funny and enjoyable because I met new people and we had great times together. We had lots of fun going climbing, watching movies, plays and having many different group activities. 

By Ivan

Daniel Anderson’s Blog:

The experience that I had at Serve! was outstanding. I’ve done many things. Things that I have learned are working with seniors at Central Neighborhood House Bingo. I helped seniors play bingo. I also worked at St Bartholomew’s Children Centre helping children play games and activities. I enjoyed interacting with the seniors and the children.

I was challenged at Adventureworks. The activities that we did at Adventureworks were real fun. I wished that I was able to do more of the activities at Adventureworks but we ran out of time. Therefore, I was very disappointed about that. Through these experiences, I gained many skills like communication skills, punctual skills and listening skills. I also learned how to interact with different cultures and get along with different kinds of people. I hope to learn more for the future.