I have spent my senior project time at the Amos House. What was interesting to me right off the bat was how many aspects of life Amos House touches upon. I was under the impression that they were mainly a soup kitchen but they also have social services, a 90-day program to get people back on their feet, a mother/child reunification program, a carpentry training course and company, a culinary training course and company, a catering business, and even a cafe. The Amos House occupies almost a whole block.
A small portion of my project was in the form of direct service. I worked the lunch shift in the soup kitchen one day and this was really fun because I got to put some cooking skills to use and I got to interact with the people that benefit from the Amos House. I also gardened one day which made the staff and patrons of Amos House very happy to see some new growth.
However, most of my time was spent doing indirect service. I did many, many things ranging from printing out available jobs to display in a job binder to looking up phone numbers of Amos House donors. I went around to local businesses asking for silent auction donations, I began the planning of shopping days for people to utilize clothing donations, and I even organized the Amos House's photo library.
My favorite experience at the Amos House was going to a meeting with the vice president about advocacy for the homeless in Providence. This was a meeting of different people from many different organizations that all aim to help the homeless. They discussed problems with the lack of affordable housing and how budget cuts could affect the homeless. This was very interesting and it exposed me to something I had not learned much about before.
All in all, this has been a very good experience and I am glad that I spent my time trying out all the different aspects of a non-profit organization.
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