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Below you will find daily journal entries detailing my service during my second year as a

member of the honors college. I have been very fortunate to experience parts of this city that are

often overlooked, especially when it comes to the people I have met. You will read about what it

was I did while spending my time with COTS Detroit and 826michigan, two local organizations

with vastly different goals. In the end I found great pleasure serving my new home with both

groups, but as you will read below, Detroit’s inequalities are still alive and well.

03/30/2018: Beginning of Service

In order to fulfill my service learning requirement for this class, I looked for an

organization that would allow me to work with children here in the city of Detroit. I cherished

my time working with the Detroit Police Athletic League during my freshman year of college, as

I found working with children to be a very fulfilling experience. I also found that you can

observe a lot of things about children, and that they would make a great group of individuals for

me to study as I applied sociological thinking to my service journal. I started volunteering today

with a group called 826michigan. This organization was founded in 2002 in San Francisco,

California. Professional educator Nínive Calegari and author Dave Eggers wanted to create a

way to help overburdened teachers in the San Francisco area. The pair devised a plan: use the

creative adults that lived in their own city to better the education of the students who needed the

most help. The success that was had at their 826 Valencia Street location led to the creation of

826 National and additional chapters in seven other cities, including 826michigan in 2005,

according to their website. From what I have been told so far, 826michigan runs a variety of

programs out of three locations. The original is located in downtown Ann Arbor, the second is in

downtown Ypsilanti, and the final location is in Eastern Market here in Detroit. I spent my time
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today in the Detroit office, where we had an informational meeting. I came to find out later that

this was one of two meetings that I was going to have to attend to work with children. I am

interested in working in 826michigan’s after school tutoring program that takes place Monday

thru Friday. 826michigan focuses on improving students overall comfort with writing during

these programs, and I feel that as a journalist I am well suited for this. The staff all seem young,

and the majority of the other volunteers were college aged adults as well. I am interested in what

this second meeting will pertain, despite the fact that I will be having to travel to the Ann Arbor

office to attend. Each year, 826michigan publishes a few different books that features the writing

done by the students in their program. I volunteered to copy edit one of the books that they are

preparing right now, however I will not be able to start this process until a hard copy is delivered

to the Detroit storefront. The book is going to be 240 pages long, which is far longer than

anything I have edited before. I think the biggest challenge for me will be the fact that I have to

do edits while keeping in mind that these authors are grade school aged children. The staff is

hoping to maintain the large majority of the students writing, even if it is error filled. The idea

behind this is to let children see their work in an actual book, and to show them that they too are

able to accomplish great things.

04/03/2018: 826michigan’s Ann Arbor office

When I arrived at the 826michigan office in Ann Arbor this morning, I took pause for a

moment. The office is located downtown on East Liberty St., a place I am immensely familiar

with. I grew up about 20 minutes away from here, and I even got my haircut across the street

yesterday before departing for Detroit. I have seen the front door to 826michigan before,

however I would have had little chance of knowing that. The sign on the door says “Robot
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Supply and Repair”, with no mention of the tutoring programs that are held inside. I often would

quip to my younger brother, who is obsessed with all things technology, that I would take him in

there one day for some robot parts. I would go on to learn later that the reason behind the

seemingly random name. When 826 was founded back in 2002, the building that they were

working out of was zoned as a commercial space. When word got to the city that a non-profit

was taking up retail space, they sent someone to inform 826 that unless they started selling items

at that location, they were going to have to leave that space. In order to get around this, 826

Valencia Street started selling the first kid-friendly items they thought of: pirate supplies. The

loophole may seem inconsequential, but this is the model that every 826 location has followed

since. By choosing a kid friendly theme to stock the “storefronts”, kids can walk in and or feel

more comfortable getting tutoring from a place without having the stigma attached to the name.

Once inside I sat down with a much smaller group of volunteers than the first meeting in

Detroit. As it became evident that there would only be four of us coming, Frances Martin from

826 started her presentation. Within minutes I felt like the meeting was not accomplishing what

was intended. A good chunk of our time was spent going over the preferred pronouns of all of

the people in the group, much to the confusion of Beverly, an elderly women who was present.

This theme of unabashed inclusivity and eliminating micro-aggressions continued throughout the

information session, with little time being spent talking about what the expectations of 826 were

pertaining to our work with children. Having grown up in the area, I was very aware of the

culture that was driving Frances to lead the meeting in this way. Just as we discussed in class,

Frances was outwardly showing her Ann Arbor nativism through the expression of a

common Folkway from the area. In Ann Arbor culture, it would be considered rather

inconsiderate, and even offensive, if someone did not ask you for your preferred pronouns
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upon meeting you in a situation like this one. This is not to say that you are going to be

punished for not doing so, as this practice is still rather young, which is why I would argue

that it is not yet a prescriptive norm. The same could be said for Frances’ attempts to

remove any of our personal micro-aggression before beginning the meeting. Older

Millennials have taken up the micro-aggression cause, and it is possible as they continue to

become more prominent in society, our cultural norms may shift to adopt their ideals.

04/10/2018: Serving Breakfast at COTS Detroit

Today was my first time volunteering with COTS Detroit. Before today, I had only ever

served breakfast to the homeless one time at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Ann Arbor,

Michigan. Even that is a little bit of an overstatement, as I took the opportunity to work as a

dishwasher that morning instead of serving food to the homeless. My younger sister and mother

used to volunteer at St. Andrew’s a few Sundays each month, where they saw many of the same

people attending the breakfast services. Over their tenure, my sister and mother gained a little

insight as to how people ended up staying in St. Andrew’s shelter program, but they often felt

like this was a topic that they should not ask about as to not upset the patrons. I am hopeful that

during my time with COTS my background as a journalist will allow me to take that step, and

find out a little bit more about the people in this program.

Arriving at COTS for the first time was rather shocking to me. The complex is located at

26 Peterboro St., which lies just off of Woodward Avenue in Midtown. My favorite late-night

eatery is located directly next door to COTS, and yet I was totally unaware of its existence. I

began to wonder to myself: could the people who used to be standing outside the restaurant

waiting to ask restaurant visitors for their leftovers be residents of COTS? Had I interacted with
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some of the people I was about to see before? I was feeling pretty overwhelmed at this point,

which I am disappointed to say. Before moving to Detroit, I grew up in a rural, whitewashed

middle class town. The only thing we had less of than people in need was diversity. The majority

of people from my hometown would be considered middle to upper middle class. The people

that are living at COTS belong to a part our society I have had little experience with: the

underclass. The underclass exists as a part of society, around 5 percent of people in the

United States, that is devoid of class movement. Often times concentrated in the inner city,

this group has little to no connection to the job market. The jobs that do exist for those who

are living as a member of the underclass are low-paying, and often times only temporary.

Government assistance programs play a pivotal role in the lives of members of the

underclass, potentially even more so than the working poor. The lives of underclass

Americans are by far the hardest of all, with mental health issues setting in as a result of

the constant stress it induces. The rest of the country often times looks down on these

individuals, even going as far as to wish they did not exist as an inconvenience. This act of

dehumanization only continues to further the plight of these people in need. It should come

as no surprise then that this part of the population suffers immensely from mental health

issues. The lack of security that exists financially leads to higher divorce rates, higher

incarceration rates, and worse physical health than any other segment of the population as

well. In fact, Those who are in the top 5 percent of the United States income distribution

can expect to live 9 years longer than those in the bottom 10 percent.

Everything about what I was walking into at COTS was so different that anything I had

experienced, despite living in the Motor City for two years now. I was very glad that I had
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scheduled to be serving breakfast with a classmate, John, who was far more brave than I was that

morning.

Walking up to the front door, I was already aware that the vibe inside was going to be

much different than that of 826michigan. The door at COTS is locked from the inside, and

despite being a clear glass door, you are not allowed to walk into the building without being let

in by a staff member.

“Are you the volunteers?” a woman wearing a dark blue COTS Detroit shirt asked.

Before our groggy 6:00 a.m. minds could reply, the woman behind the counter had directed John

and I to find Mrs. Kathy in the kitchen.

“The kitchen is just right behind those doors,” said our new acquaintance. As we crossed

through the doorway, we immediately entered the dining room. Some of the COTS residents had

already began to gather, waiting for their breakfast. It was during this moment that I had perhaps

my most profound realization of the day: the majority of the people who are waiting for this meal

are young children. Before I had any chance to really think about what I was seeing, Mrs. Kathy

stepped out of the kitchen to meet us. After a brief introduction, John and I were given plastic

gloves and told to push a cafeteria warmer into the dining hall. Once we were in place, I removed

the aluminum foil to discover what was for breakfast: hard boiled eggs, sausage links and grits

that were swimming in a pool of oil.

“Kids get a plate with one egg, two links and grits. Adults get two eggs, three links and a

scoop of grits. They’ll tell you what they need when they come up,” Mrs. Kathy told John and I

as she turned to the COTS residents, signaling the start of breakfast service. Within five minutes

of walking into the door, we were already hard at work. As the line began to form in front of us,

John and I quickly divided up plate making tasks between ourselves. I immediately began
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noticing things about the people in line. Everyone was fairly young, parents and children

alike. There was a noticeable lack of men in the breakfast line, with maybe only two men

coming through the whole morning. I know that many of the shelters near my home only

take in women and children, but I have not been able to confirm if this is the case with

COTS. According to the lectures, more than one-third of the poor are children, and nearly

two thirds of the poor are below 35. Women make up three-fifths of the population living in

poverty over the age of 18. Consequently, one-third of those living below the poverty line

live in female headed households; one-third in married couples; and 27.8 percent are living

on their own without relatives. This phenomenon has become known today as the

feminization of poverty.

As the line progressed, I began to pick up on some of what was happening in the dining

room. Many of the mothers were getting their children ready for school while everyone ate

breakfast. The kids would remain seated at their tables when the mothers would come up and get

their food. Often times we were asked for different food items that the younger children might

appreciate more than the grits (which were not getting high praise from anyone in that room).

Sometimes Mrs. Kathy was able to oblige with some applesauce, but that is where the choices

ended. As the breakfast rush came to a close, and John and I began to wrap up the meal, the

children of COTS were rushed out the door by their mothers as the school bus arrived. Watching

the little ones walk out of the dining room of this shelter as they were starting their school day

really struck me. This was a life that many kids in this building knew nothing but, and it is so

different than the life that I lived as a young child.

Our life experiences as Americans have been completely different as a direct result

of our differing social class. As Weber defined them, social classes are large groups of
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people who rank closely to one another in property, power, and prestige. These are the

confines that determine one's chances in life, places them within a certain lifestyle, as well

as provide the lens in which one views themselves and the world around them. Having

grown up in the rural middle class, my parents had very different levels of property,

power, and prestige than the parents who are currently living in COTS. We know today

that social classes are vastly influential on the lives we live. The class that one belongs to

affects their health, family life, education, religion, politics, as well as one’s relationship

with the law.

Without the intention of this happening, both of the places that I will be volunteering at

directly involve children. I am going to look into how the sociological principles that we studied

in class could relate to the lives of these children from Detroit. I am interested in seeing how

similar the life experiences of the students at 826michigan and the children living at COTS are

when compared to one another.

04/10/18: First Day With Children at 826michigan

Today was the first time that I actually was able to work with students at 826. When I

arrived I met Brandan, the 826 staff member who I will be working alongside for the next few

weeks. He informed me that there was a lot less students than normal coming in this week, as the

Detroit Public Schools just came back from spring break. This week is also the time of year

when statewide standardized testing takes place in Michigan, so many of the students would not

have homework to bring to tutoring. I proceeded to fill out a sheet that would tell students what

subjects I could help them in. 826michigan services elementary through high school students, so

they hope to have a wide range of volunteers to cover all of the necessary bases. However, I was

one of only two volunteers today. I was assigned to work with a young girl named Aaliyah, a
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fourth grader who needed help on her math homework. I am by no means a math student, but I

can handle multiplying fractions. Aaliyah was very shy, and did not want to be spending a lot of

time talking to me while doing her homework. Because it was my first day working with the

students, I did not feel comfortable pushing her on this. However, after five minutes, I noticed

that Aaliyah was still staring blankly at the first problem. I asked her if she would like some help,

and she gave me a reluctant nod. I began to work with Aaliyah on each step of the math

problem, but she was unable to begin any of the problems without assistance. At this point, I

began to show Aaliyah how to do the problems, but I could tell that things were not making

sense to her. I asked her if she had ever done this before in her class, but she told me that she was

not really sure, and that she just takes the math worksheets that she is given. I am interested to

learn more about what school she goes to. As we finished up her math worksheet, Brandan

informed the students that he did not have a writing prompt for them to work on like they

normally do. I could not help but feel like 826 is not meeting its potential for the children who

are attending. Everything we did today felt like we were acting as babysitters of a sort instead of

making a real difference for these kids. I will have to wait until I come back to 826 to see if this

changes.

04/12/2018: Second Day With Children at 826michigan

Based on my experience at 826michigan earlier this week, I felt a little weary coming

back here. My first day at COTS was still fresh in my mind, and I could not but feel like there

was more I could be doing for those children than for the children who were coming through the

doors of 826michigan. Nevertheless, I met with Brandan to plan out my day of tutoring.

Statewide standardized testing is still going on, and as such some of the students cancelled once
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again without homework. Unfortunately, Aaliyah was one of these students. On a positive note,

there were five kids that came in for tutoring, which was a great improvement over my first visit.

I am beginning to feel like the 826michigan tutoring model has a hard time applying to the

Detroit students. It seems like the amount of homework that students are bringing in is not

enough to fill a session with a tutor. It seems weird to me that all of these kids are also working

on similar level of material, when they are vastly different ages. All of the kids who attended

today go to the same charter school here in the city: Hope of Detroit Academy. The school

is located on the southwest side of Detroit, an area of the city that is 57.2 percent Latino

and 23.6 percent African American, according to city records from 2010. When I asked

Brandan for more information about the school that the children attend, he said that it is a

popular alternative for kids in the neighborhood because many of public schools in the

area no longer exist.

This is not surprising when you look at the fact that the residents of the

neighborhood are uneducated as a whole. The share of residents without a high school

diploma in Southwest Detroit is 46.6 percent: which is the highest among the six “Skillman

neighborhoods” and currently sits at twice the city average of 23.2 percent. In fact, 23.9

percent of the residents in Southwest Detroit have less than a 9th grade education. The

amount of people in the neighborhood with college degrees breaks down as follows: 2.1

percent have an associate’s degree, 3.4 percent have a bachelor’s degree, and 1.9 percent

have a graduate or professional degree. Just like we learned in class, education is directly

related to one’s level poverty in the United States. Twenty-five percent of high school

dropouts end up living in poverty, but only five percent of people who finish college go on

to live in poverty.
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In Southwest Detroit, 30.6 percent of the population have an income of less than

$15,000 a year, and another 16.4 percent make less than $24,999. While poverty is not a

racially specific issue, large portions of minority communities live impoverished lives. As

such, there is no precedent for education in many cases, and even intelligent people are

unable to attend college. Without education, there is no real way to end the cyclical effects

poverty has on a the community. This is a system that we see being perpetuated in

Southwest Detroit, as the city’s records show. Perhaps the most unfortunate part of this

problem comes when we look at how the poverty has affected the amount of crime in the

area. The overall crime rate in Southwest Detroit is 246 percent higher than the national

average, and in Southwest Detroit you have a 1 in 11 chance of becoming a victim of any

crime. We learned that social class has a direct link to one’s education as well as one’s

relationship with the law; those who belong to the lower classes in Southwest Detroit have

had their community suffer as a result of this.

04/13/2018: Serving Dinner at COTS Detroit

I made my way back to COTS Detroit today after spending the last few days working

exclusively 826michigan. While I have been beginning to feel like 826michigan is

underachieving with the students, I have been thinking about the importance of COTS services

more and more. When I arrived today, I already knew how to get back to the kitchen to start my

shift. There was an older man joining John and I as a volunteer this evening, but he was not

serving food like we were. As dinner time grew closer, we were met by Mr. C, the man in charge

that evening. He was a much vocal than Mrs. Kathy, and he had more rules as well. Instead of

just wearing gloves, this time John and I were given kitchen aprons to wear as well. We served
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sloppy joes and potato chips for dinner tonight. The majority of kids were once again seated as

their parents lined up for dinner, and the rest got an earful from Mr. C before taking their seats.

We learned in class that the children who are raised in the lower social classes are taught to

defer to authority. This is passed on by their parents as a means to prepare their children

for the type of work that they might be able to find when they reach adulthood. This was so

evident at COTS that I noticed it before I had even learned that this was something that

takes place. The children were all kept in line at all times, and as soon as any person with

authority spoke, the children immediately followed the orders given. At this point I noticed

that everyone that we were seeing in line for dinner had also been at breakfast earlier in the

week. Later when I asked Mr. C about this, he confirmed with me that everyone who was at the

meal services also lived in the building. COTS does not serve any homeless people who are not

enrolled in their program. I also learned that everyone who is a living at COTS also has to be

married, as the program follows religious principles. I asked Mr. C about how people begin

living in the COTS program and how long people tend to stay, and I was rather surprised

by what he had to say. When applying to COTS, your situation has to be pretty dire. COTS

generally looks to accept couples with children first, as they are the most at risk for feeling

the effects of biological poverty. In its most basic form, biological poverty involves the

threats of starvation and malnutrition. Throughout the United States, 45.5 percent of

children who are below the poverty line experienced problems with food insecurity. In

2002, it was determined that 20 percent of these children in poverty go to bed hungry.

Through their housing program, COTS aims to help keep some of these young children

and their mothers from experiencing the effects of their level of poverty. While the

program requires the inhabitants to be married, many of the men do not live in the shelter,
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as they try to secure new living quarters or maintain their previous home while the wife

and children receive care from COTS. This is why I did not see their presence at either of

the meals I have worked at so far. The length of how long a family is in COTS’ care varies

on a per case basis, according to Mr. C. While some families take advantage of the added

stability that COTS offers, as well as take them up on their various job finding programs,

not everyone does.

“If a family comes in here and has the right mindset about it, we can expect to see

them for as little as a month. If they get in here and they decide that they are gonna feel

bad for themselves and not work to get into a better situation, they could end up being here

for a whole lot longer,” said Mr. C when talking about the families that made of the tenants

of the shelter. Unfortunately, COTS does have people that end up in and out of the shelter

as their battle with poverty unfolds. In general, most poverty lasts less than a year, while

only 12 percent of poverty lasts five years or longer. Despite the fact that many people

escape poverty within a year, there is a portion of the population that spends their entire

lives coming in and out of poverty, never being able to escape the system. Despite this, Mr.

C seemed very optimistic about the work that they do at COTS to fight against the effects

of poverty in Detroit. After spending another night working in the kitchen at COTS, I can

definitely see how much this program benefits the people who qualify for assistance.

4/19/2018: Last Day At 826michigan

Today was my last session of tutoring at 826michigan. I went into today feeling rather

disappointed in how my service has gone with this program. While 826 was never intended to be

a program that directly focused on impoverished communities, this Detroit office is surrounded
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by this problem. When I worked in the Detroit Public School system last year, all I could think

about was how could people in this city help to address the issue of education as a means to fight

poverty? Now that I have spent time with a tutoring group that directly works with these

students, I am underwhelmed by what they are achieving. I fear that when 826 came to Detroit,

they brought too many of their Ann Arbor practices with them without first studying the

environment that they were coming into. I sat down with Brandan when I arrived today to

discuss some of these thoughts with him to see what he had to say. According to Brandan, the

programs that exist in each city are operated differently. The Ann Arbor office of 826michigan

has a more rigorous curriculum, and the staff tend to have higher expectations. The students who

attend tutoring at the Ann Arbor office also tend to have much more homework than the Detroit

kids. Not only is the amount of homework different, the level of difficulty is also much higher

for the Ann Arbor kids. 826 maintains that their mission is the same in each city: they are there

to support the educational system that exists in the area. They do so by addressing the specific

needs of teachers that work in the school districts. However, Brandan did admit that 826 is not

very well integrated into Detroit schools. In Ypsilanti, 826michigan has become so well known

by students, teachers, and parents alike that kids who need the program know that they have that

option. Even if 826michigan was to become a more widely integrated resource for Detroit Public

School students, there is no doubt that the Detroit office is not ready to handle more students.

While I have been working with Brandan, we have not had that many students attending. That

being said, the Detroit office currently has a waitlist with over 40 children on it. Even with a

relatively low level of notoriety in the area, they are unable to handle any more students at this

time. Brandan told me that this is something that he and the other members of the 826 team are

currently trying to find solutions for, while still maintaining the organization's core values of
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volunteerism and creativity. As the Detroit Public School system begins the current overhaul

cycle. Brandan is excited and confident to see how 826 is going to impact Detroit Public Schools

moving forward. I worry that if they do not adopt a model that is not based on Ann Arbor

Schools, they will be unable to help these children who are attending deal with the educational

issues that surround this city.

How Do We Address These Issues?

America is a broken country. The disparity of people's experiences in this nation is more

vast than we realize. I continue to wonder how we are ever going to be able to solve the

problems that are happening in Southwest Detroit, as well as all over this country where people

are fighting to survive. However, the more time I spend working with groups who try and

answer this question, the more I feel like sociology has the answer. When we divide the U.S.

population into five equal segments and rank them by income, the top 20 percent of the

population receives 51 percent of all the income in the United States. The bottom 20

percent of the population is left to share only 3.2 of the nation’s income. While this seems

absolutely insane, it should come as no surprise to anyone with knowledge of how those

with power have written the rules of this nation. C. Wright Mills describe power as the

ability to get your agenda accomplished despite resistance. He continued to argue that

power is held in the hands of a very select few, for which he coined the phrase “Power

Elite”. In the United States, this group of people is made up of high ranking government

officials, as well as the leaders of the most powerful corporations. Because the Power Elite

are able to influence policy as well as the economy, they directly impact the job

opportunities that affect millions of people in the United States. If not through policy and
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the economy, it is the Power Elite who own our mass media outlets and run our

universities. The Power Elite play a role in all of our lives each and every day. The entire

consciousness of the people in the United States is directly affected by the will of the Power

Elite. The Power Elite are by all intents and purpose capable of fixing the wealth disparity

in the United States; however, because it does not directly benefit them to do so, no action

is ever taken to improve the lives of the neediest people that they control. If we as a nation

are ready to end the effects that poverty has on our health, family lives, education, religion,

politics, and one’s relationship with the law; we must fight to change the system that allows

the Power Elite to control the majority of the wealth in this nation.