This past August, ’08 alumna Erin Cooley moved to Gresham, Ore., to provide health care for people who fall below the 200 percent Federal Poverty Level. The FPL is the “poverty line” set by the U.S. government to determine which individuals who are lacking the resources to meet the basic needs for healthy living.
Cooley is working with JVC Northwest, a Jesuit service organization that is similar to AmeriCorps, until July 2010. JVC Northwest has four core values: simplicity, spirituality, community and social justice. The organization places volunteers with service or nonprofit organizations in the northwestern states, including Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, Washington and Montana.
Members live in community with other participants in their city, and they volunteer full time at the agency they are placed. An area director visits regularly, and there are quarterly retreats for all the volunteers in the region.
A Spanish and biochemistry major, Cooley wanted to spend the year after her graduation doing some sort of volunteer work, specifically in the medical field.
“I learned about JVC through my friend who went to Gonzaga, a Jesuit university. I went on their Web site to see the volunteer opportunities available and found some that fit well with what I wanted and decided to apply,” Cooley said.
Cooley is working at Wallace Medical Concern, which is a free urgent and acute care clinic. The clinic serves uninsured people. Cooley is the Referral and Clinic Coordinator.
“I work in the office three days a week following up on patient referrals…and am also working on organizing healthy cooking and health education classes for diabetes and hypertension prevention,” Cooley said. She also works at the clinic two nights a week helping coordinate clinic flow and sitting with patients to initiate referrals. A mobile clinic is being set up so the clinic can reach more patients. Cooley will work with referrals from the van as well.
Although she’s only been in Oregon for two months, Cooley has already had her fair share of rewarding experiences with her work. The most rewarding came through a program known as Project Access.
“The first patient I enrolled in the program is an interesting character. He’d just been released from prison and looked like a stereotypical ex-con: greasy, slicked-back hair in a tight pony tail, baggy khaki shorts, oversized white undershirt, with tattoos from his ankles all the way up to his neck,” Cooley said. The patient was there to get a surgery to allow him to get a job.
“It was likely going to be manual labor because of all the tattoos, which he couldn’t do without the surgery,” Cooley said. The patient told Cooley he didn’t want to go back to drug dealing even though it was easy money. He was trying to stay out of the bad areas in town to keep away from temptation.
“He has been so great to work with and so appreciative of my help. He’s one of my favorite patients,” Cooley said.
Cooley’s favorite funny experience stemmed from her $80 monthly stipend from JVC Northwest. Her small stipend encourages her to branch out and find interesting things to do for free.
One night, Cooley and her housemates stumbled upon a Polish festival in north Portland. They talked their way into free food and spent the night dancing traditional Polish dances with strangers and joining trains through hundreds of Polish people dancing to the live accordion and lederhosen-clad band.
Cooley says she would not trade her experience for the world. Her advice to students looking to get involved in volunteer work is to look for opportunities.
“There are lots of options out there; you just have to find them,” Cooley said. “Every program has a different style, which lets you choose what type of work you want to do. Do some research. Ask questions. Be creative.”
Contact Hannah Neill at hannah.neill@whitworthian.com.
Alumna joins JVC Northwest
Published: Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Updated: Tuesday, October 13, 2009
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