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"Remember, there is no morality higher
than Truth
there is no prayer more fruitful than Service." |
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| Boston Sai Center Service Projects | ||
 Judge
Connelly Youth Center Eyeglass
Project at Haley House Sancta
Maria Nursing Facility Woolen
Cap Project Judge
Connelly Tutoring Program Haley
House Report – Young Adults Haley
House Service Project Report - Adult Seva Project Computer
Training Program |
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Judge Connelly Youth Center Sommerville Sai Center makes monthly visits to Judge Connelly Youth Center, Roslindale for teenage boys. Special visits are made during Christmas. Three to six devotees participate in the monthly visits, usually held on the third Thursday of the month from about 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. The volunteers play dictionary or charades games, do short readings from spiritual literature and serve ice cream and other snacks. The boys receive us with enthusiasm every time. Father Joe, the Chaplain at the facility with whom we have a wonderful working relationship, tells us the boys are always asking, “When are they coming back?” The purpose of the visit is to try to give the boys Swami’s love, without judgment.  topEyeglass Project at Haley House Sommerville Sai Center has been conducting a monthly program since April 1995 to provide the guests at the Haley House with free eye exams and free used eyeglasses. A devotee, who is an Optometrist, brings basic eye examination equipment to Haley House. Two or three other Center members assist her. The Optometrist examines about six guests, usually on the second Sunday morning of the month. Most patients need glasses and the glasses are provided from the inventory of donated glasses. We have been fortunate to fill almost every prescription from our inventory. Over 300 men and a few women have received glasses since the inception of the project. topSancta Maria Nursing Facility Sommerville Sai Center makes monthly visits to Sancta Maria Nursing facility for disabled or sickly elderly persons since December 1993. Special visits are made each Christmas. In general five to twelve devotees participate in these monthly visits that are usually held on the fourth Saturday of every month from 10:00 to 12:00 a.m. at the facility in 799 Concord Avenue, Cambridge. We show our love by talking and singing to them, and they interact with us as well. We sing primarilyAmerican folk songs and some English bhajans. The residents and staff of the facility receive us with enthusiasm every time we visit. Participation of more devotees encouraged. Those who have talent in any music, vocal or instrumental are strongly encouraged to dedicate their time once a month to the residents of the Sancta Maria facility. topWoolen Cap Project This project has been conducted by Sommerville Sai Center since Swami’s 75th Birthday. Devotees young and old knit and crochet caps throughout the year with the idea of completing the number of caps that signify Bhagawan’s Birthday. About 8 to 10 devotees have been dedicatedly making caps every year and those who cannot make caps donated yarn. On one occasion when caps were taken to a facility, the program coordinator said, “you are making several mothers and children who come with bare heads and cold hands happy.” This is Swami’s appreciation for our humble offering. It has been five years since this project began and every year, with Baba’s grace, we have been making 108-125 caps. Two years ago a devotee from Norwalk center sent 10 caps she made to add to our count. If you are interested, please offer your humble service to this project by knitting or crocheting. topJudge Connelly Tutoring Program The Sommerville Sai Center sponsors a biannual tutoring program on Saturday afternoons at the Judge Connelly Youth Correction Facility. We offer tutoring to "high functioning" inmates at the Center for 12-Week semesters, each session lasting 90 minutes per weekend. The Center population consists of boys between the ages of 11 and 17. The program hosts 8 boys and 8 tutors each semester. In the past, we have had about 55 boys tutored in our program over 6 full semesters of work and about the same number of tutors (most of them are not Sai devotees) have been involved. We offer two basic learning modules: Life Lessons and GED Preparation. Life Lessons is a Socratic group learning module that the group tackles together. Subjects include basic life skill issues like surviving a crisis, getting a job, negotiating with people. For the second half of each 90-minute session, tutors work one-on-one with the boys to prepare them for the GED (high school equivalency) test. Tutors focus on the individual needs of the boys in the areas of English, Math or Logic. We keep a log of progress for each week. Next Steps We are considering a 30-year-old curriculum designed for prisons called Thresholds, which was designed by former inmates and Yale University academics. It addresses the inmates’ inability to make decisions well and on an ongoing basis. Depending on its quality, Thresholds may become an additional part of our curriculum or replace an existing program. Challenges Our biggest hurdle is that the inmates turnover regularly and it is hard to maintain regularity. Furthermore, the prison administration is overwhelmed, under-resourced and understaffed. However, they put in the necessary effort to make the coordination of the program successful and relatively thorough. topHaley House Report – Young Adults Haley House is a soup kitchen service project, where we cook and serve food for the needy. The Young adults volunteer to do it every second Sunday of each month. HOW PEOPLE GET INVOLVED? Typically, we send out emails on the Tuesday prior to the week of service asking for volunteers to sign up for the session. People must to sign up before the end of Thursday. We usually get 2 people for breakfast session and 5 people for the lunch session. Usually we have enough Young adults for the session, but a few weeks we have not have enough people. In that case, we request members to see if anyone is available. Typically, people who sign up (commit) show up at Haley House. One of the volunteers opts to buy groceries for that day. Process: As planned, 2 people show up for the breakfast session. They would be involved in preparing pancakes, for breakfast. This session would go from 6 am to 8.15 am. The breakfast session ends at this point. The volunteers who have signed up for Lunch session show up at 8.30 and cut the vegetables and cook the food. We start serving at 11 am. Normally, we prepare spaghetti, sauce and garlic bread for lunch. We finish serving by 12 noon and cleanup the place until 12. 30 p.m. before we leave. The turnout has been pretty good for the YA week, and we still encourage more YAs to participate in this project. topHaley House Service Project Report - Adult Seva Project Participation About 5-6 volunteers are needed to adequately and comfortably perform the seva. One of the volunteers opts to buy groceries for that day. Lately, not enough volunteers have come to perform the seva. While this has resulted in additional load on the attending volunteers, the quality is not sacrificed. Efforts are being made to introduce new volunteers to perform this wonderful Narayan seva. Next Steps: We need at least 2 more adults help us in the seva. The Haley House asked us whether someone could play chess with the guests while the food is begin prepared. We are looking for people to interact with the guests. topComputer Training Program The Somerville Sai Center has designed a program that allows the opportunity to bridge the digital divide in a 7-week program by accessing them to key teaching modules in Word, Excel, and Powerpoint. It is a one semester program in the spring (starts February 23rd) and one in the fall. We have included below a general description of the program. The Somerville Sathya Sai Baba Center Mediation is a non-denominational mediation and service organization, dedicated to offering free social service programs to the Boston Metro community in places where we can have significant hands-on impact in the lives of the less fortunate. Our center and programs are inspired by the teachings of a spiritual teacher in southern India named Sathya Sai Baba. We do not recruit members or have any religious affiliation outside of the religions that our members practice on their own (Christianity, Judaism Hinduism, Islam etc.) The focus of our social service work is on helping people who are disadvantaged move more solidly towards their life goals. The Basics of Computer Use Program is a free seven--week course that takes the students from the basics of Turning the Computer On, through Word, Excel and PowerPoint. We meet every Saturday for a 90-minute period at the College Methodist Church in Davis Square, Somerville. In between computer classes, we incorporate a Life Lessons module to create weekly conversations in a way that the kids can openly discuss their day to day life issues with the center tutors. The discussions begin with an inspirational quote from a recognized leader like Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and Mother Teresa and last about twenty minutes. We have made progress with the kids on their learning issues, and, as importantly, our ongoing and consistent presence have proven to be valuable assets in the development of teen kids who are working hard to make it. Nationally, our students have come through agencies that deal with homeless or disadvantaged teens or through high schools that have an audience interested in advancing their students across the digital divide. We have recently added teen immigrants to the list of targets for the program. Locally, our population has been teen boys in the Roslindale Judge Connelly correctional facility. We are looking to expand the reach of the program with innovative schools like Cambridge Rindge and Latin. top |
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