Anthropologist, VISTA, or Employee?

Usually I start at the beginning, but to make this more readable, lets start at the end with my questions, skip to the beginning and end somewhere in the middle.

Is it cheating to use my VISTA title as a resource when doing anthropological research on poverty? Poverty is a state of being without resources. Using the jargon and title quickly navigates the system, but also is an inauthentic experience because it is not like that of which my participants have. When I play my card as a VISTA to my advantage so I can quickly get to my work as an employee, am I sacrificing my anthropology? If I sacrifice my VISTA experience by not playing by the culture of poverty rules, am I doing some possible harm to my project because I don't have the same investment in the programs' successes?

So, what am I? Anthropologist, VISTA, or employee?

Just to be clear, I am not an "employee" or "staff" of my site organization, I am a program lead. I just want to be clear on this. I used "employee" as a word people can relate to, a term of indentured-ness, not because I am paid by them. When I say employee, I mean the applying knowledge, instead of creating it side.

I love anthropology. It isn't just a scientific style, it is my adopted learning style. If I want to understand my new job, in a new place, I must understand its culture. I also feel very blessed that I work for a place that respects data and wants to have the science back up its mission. When both allocating and applying for grants in a world of non-profits, you need data and stories to back up the work. It gives us a competitive edge. I see anthropology as the perfect science to fulfill this. But at times, I have to stop being a scientist in observation mode and do work. I have to make phone calls, and I have to attend meetings. But I am trying to balance 3 identities.

Part of this blog is to let my friends and family know what I am doing in Dubuque, but also I am keeping this as my field notes for the next person who may come help this organization. I also hope that it will be passed along to any student or person interested in the foundation's organizational culture, and those interested in re-creating the success the programs here in Dubuque seem to be having in fighting poverty.

So let me explain what I have learned so far and where my questions come from.

I work as a Volunteer In Service To America (VISTA). We are not staff of the organizations we work with, we are volunteers. Our stipends are paid for by the federal government because we are doing the hard task of ending poverty in America. We are receive a stipend but for all purposes we are volunteers in a war. I try not to look at my paychecks at all because it scares me to see how little I make with a college degree. At the same time, I, as a scientist, think that experience is very important. For us to really understand the challenges people in poverty face, we have to experience them for ourselves. If we want to make the system more effective for those it is trying to help, we have to be able to describe the system from the client's point of view, not us the service providers.

The traditional anthropologists who deploy to the tribal nations in Africa, for example, are not expected to be one of the people, like how Richard Borshay Lee describes in "Eating Christmas in the Kalahari." In his article, he describes how when studying the substinance culture of the !Kung tribal group, he provided his own food and housing so not to disrupt their natural habits by a new person to feed. An anthropologist is encouraged not to adopt too much of another culture or they may be accused of "going native," meaning they adopted most or all of another culture's habits and effectively joined them. This can be dangerous for an anthropologist who, as a scientist, is a cultural interpreter. To lose yourself in another culture could make you loose your impartiality, something science appreciates. If you go too far, you may also lose your ability to communicate with your audience.

A VISTA is not a staff person, but not everbody understands the distinction between my position and the organization I am working with. People expect you to know their rules (the rules of the middle class and in this case, the organizations cultural rules), behave in socially acceptable ways, and be representative of the organization, which in my case is a foundation. Many donors and high-powered people walk into the office, and I have to be capable of leaving a positive impression with them. I asked my VISTA leader at the state office today how I should make sure to represent my unique position in my e-mails and in my introductions to people I work with, or will be working with. I want to make sure, the same way an anthropologist would introduce themselves ethicly to a population for study, I am clear about my special position.

Anthropolgists when doing field work are not supposed to mis-represent themselves. Part III in the American Anthropology Association code of ethics states we "in both proposing and carrying out research, anthropological researchers must be open about the purpose(s), potential impacts, and source(s) of support for research projects with funders, colleagues, persons studied or providing information, and with relevant parties affected by the research. Researchers must expect to utilize the results of their work in an appropriate fashion and disseminate the results through appropriate and timely activities." That sounds like a different way of saying a lot of what my job description is. I will also be utilizing others work and my own work and making sure there is communication. But I am also a VISTA.

While most people on the street may not know what a VISTA is, it is benefit to me if people and organizations I am working with understand my distinction. My self-identification also has the added benefit of raising awareness about the VISTA program so more people become aware of how their tax payer dollars are being spent, and the types of opportunities there are to serve America.

So, while I may be doing anthropological research on poverty, I am also an insider to the culture of poverty, on paper. I make very little money, and due to the VISTA contract agreements to have no outside paid work, have no opportunities for relief from this position. I am not just a researcher, I am living the life. It reminds me of the book "Black Like Me" by Howard Griffin. He was a journalist who went undercover as a Black man in the 1960s in the south and wrote about his experience. He was part anthropologist, part journalist. But I am part Anthropologist, part VISTA.

The VISTA experience is, for lack of a better term, going undercover. From what I have inferred from the pre-service orientation style, and from my own knowledge of leadership and learning styles, the VISTA program is set up for many people in service to have an exploratory learning experience to really walk in another's shoes. "Exploratory learning" is a style of learning that doesn't focus on textbook experience, but where there is freedom to uncover relationships between things and ask questions. It is a more intuitive and individual style of learning. It is like giving a child an aquarium with fish and plants living in it, and letting them generate the questions for study and experiment. It is not done without supervision, and with some guidance, but the focus isn't just on memorization and tasks. I've not read that this is exactly how it was meant to be, but it is what I have observed.

At pre-service orientation, no matter which group you were assigned, the set up was of round tables. On those tables were colored placards, markers, colored pencils, an array of different types and colors of pipe-cleaners, and for my group, playdoh. This was both used as an ice-breaker because people could decorate their name-cards and make them unique, but also used as a tool. There are several types of learning styles identified today. Some people see or read something and remember it. Some people retain the most information if they hear it. Some people remember the most information when they write it themselves. Some people remember information best if they repeat it over and over again. What was given to us for us to have access so we could use our hands and our brains while retaining information. It was also to play with. At one time we were asked to break into groups. There were groups for our preference based on what we liked to do most. Our choices were: tell stories, dance, sing, or do visual art like painting, drawing, and sculpture. We each re-told a story about success with our chosen art.

Another time, during the pre-service orientation, we all sat in group and shared experiences and reflections on the information that had been given to us via lecture earlier that day. We were expected to use the information, and also practice healthy communication styles when talking about something deep and personal like experiences in crisis and poverty. Not everybody had yet had a personal experience with things like being hungry, being evicted, or not having enough money for essential items like tampons or toiletpaper. It was a time to have a conversation with both sides sharing and being honest with a group of strangers. This is also an exploratory learning strategy. You can't control the conversation, it will turn and turn. We had a moderator to keep it moving, keep any one person from dominating the conversation, and to initiate questions at times when the converstation slowed. It wasn't a series of yes or no questions, and it wasn't the person with the most education passing along information.

For a VISTA to have a meaningful and deep experience with poverty, there has to be this personal involvement. We must live the life and at time identify our own advantages and disadvantages so we can help lessen those for others in the future. Anthropology, as a science, would at times balk at this strategy.

But at times I am an insider. I have to act like an employee. I am a project leader. I am not just a scientist or student of the culture, I have to engage. At times I am forced to represent one of my three cultures. I must represent the culture of an organization even when I am not fully a part of it. I am not staff. I don't make a paycheck like they do. I don't have local knowledge. To be more specific, I must be a good representation of the program I work for and the parent organization. Let me explain more about my particular VISTA position and site.

I am the Project HOPE coordinator, Americorp VISTA. I've described what a VISTA is, so let me describe what the Project HOPE position is.

HOPE stands for Helping Our People Excel. Project HOPE encourages and facilitates
collaboration, communication, and advocacy among referral resources,
education/training providers, employers and people in our community to
dissolve existing disparity and ensure equity in employment and
economic opportunity." Facilitates is a jargon word that means call for and host meetings between parties, keeps notes and minutes on the meetings, and passes along communication between parties. It means they know who needs to know what and makes sure that all those people get information they need. It also means at times helps research resources. Resources are things like grants. Grants are money. Usually this means money for things like materials. Materials can be many things, but usually it is paper for fliers, aide of a computer and someone who knows something about graphic design, money for food at events, and may even be for renting space for meetings. It usually doesn't mean money for paid staff, and most the programs are run by volunteers at some level. At times facilitation can mean mediation between partners.

Partners are people who are working together. In this situation it means groups with often different purposes. We have an array of groups who are partners in Project HOPE. There are banks and financial groups from the area. There are people from social services like the Multi-Cultural Family Center. There are neighborhood associations involved. There are labor groups. There are governmental groups. There is a groups from educational institutions. There is even a group that is made up of the same people as from the other groups but a separate entity. I know it sounds redundant, but actually it isn't. Because some groups spend money, some raise money, and some have niches they can't break out of because of their internal constitutions, or external legal standing, they must work in the way they do, there must be several organizations, even if they have similar people on them. There isn't so much overlap that it is dangerous, but it is an anomaly. Given some time, and some upcoming interviews I will try and map these relationships, but that is in the future.

There are several successful and yearly projects that are going on. While the projects may go even if there was no Project HOPE, for them to go on without someone facilitating the collaboration, that would lead to a danger of duplicity in some things. It would also put people back in their niches and leave gaps in services allowing people to fall between the cracks and not get help, even when it was available. There are some successful projects that are also dependent upon the Community Foundation to keep oversight on, financially. This is also a mediation of sorts. I don't directly do this, but my job is not to directly do anything.

Direct service is another term needed to be understood to understand the nature of the work and this organizational culture. Direct service means dealing with people. Social workers who meet with individuals, trainers who teach classes, and the people who can touch those living in poverty, they do direct service. It is the grassroots in a traditional sense where you go to your neighbor's house; person to person contact. I don't do that. I love that stuff the most. I organize from a grassroots perspective. I don't want to know just how many people graduate from any of the programs offered, I want to know where this person comes from (geographically) and I like to ask, when someone drops-out, where do they go? I mean really, where do they go? Are they on a street corner? Are they living in someone else basement, and if so, which basement? But it isn't my job to track that person down.That would be the job of a trainer, social worker, or mentor. My job is to make sure there is a mentor, job coach, or teacher and make sure those people tell me, and I can tell the people who have invested a lot of money and energy and love, where did those people go. My job is also to make sure there are fail-safes so that if I disappear, there is a structural safety to continue to make sure there is a mentor, teacher, or coach.

This is where my personal question about bureaucracy come is. Did I grow up to be a bureaucrat? I work within a system, a careful system. But I don't do direct service, or I am not supposed to in my job description. This doesn't mean I don't get to talk to the people I am trying to help, but I am one, sometimes two generations removed.

I was thinking about my conundrum and I think I came to the justification or reason that my "grassroots" are not people, they are organizations. This fits the day-to-day of the job description but also is helping me see how my old habits will fit into my already conscious frame. This job is about organizing organizations.

If it gives you a headache, try being me and balancing it.

But, I'm also an insider to some parts of poverty culture. On paper, and in my heart, I am a VISTA. I took an oath of poverty in a silent way as part of my oath of service to the USA. I was called by VISTA to this program. The programs we facilitate must work, and they need to work for me. I have something at stake in their success. As a new person to the area, I need to make sure that I can navigate the system and leave a clear trail behind. I do this by exploratory learning within the confines that the VISTA program sets in the way of a VISTA assignment description (VAD).

But sometimes being a VISTA feels like I am cheating too.

Continuing my documentation of the process for getting food assistance from the state, I got a phone call today from a caseworker at the Department of Human Services. She was reviewing my paperwork and was calling to do a phone interview to follow-up. I was very relieved that it was before Thanksgiving, but was at work and on my way to a meeting, so I was in a hurry. I know better than to be late to a first meeting (see future writing on hidden rules of the middle-class). It leaves a bad impression. The meeting was about funding, so in my head, that had high priority.

She was nice on the phone, but I was in my foundation work role and treated her differently than using new cultural rules I am trying out to test. She went over my paperwork. I had missed a few things like she wanted more information about my housing. I have a month-to-month with my roommate, not the house owner. I own a car. I had written down my income wrong. When I explained my job situation and explained I was a VISTA she became warmer. Not a lot warmer, but was more willing to talk to me about the situation, even though I was in a hurry. I used jargon she was familiar with and moved quickly. I even agreed to e-mail her some information, although my origional plan was to negotiate the system sans technology. I was hoping to have the whole thing worked out before the Thanksgiving holiday, but I ran into more obstacles than I had thought. She wanted some sort of proof of my VISTA contract and pay information. I have an e-mail with enough verification, but I have some of my early science in it and some personal information that I don't want her to have, so I had to re-email my state VISTA leader, which I quickly did when I heard our business appointment had been postponed 15 minutes. But my VISTA leader was gone and I got an auto-reply about her being back in the office on Monday. While the reply did have a cell-phone number for her, I don't know if it is my self-worth question, or formal politeness that has me also not going to do the follow-up until Monday. I don't want to wait. I don't. It only is more of my savings that gets eaten as I wait, but I also am from my own culture. I have money in the bank. I'm not going to starve, and my own bad habits tell me that I can wait until the last minute. When it is priority, I will deal with it. But priority then, and even now, is to get my job done. The job means this writing, but also attend the other meetings I had planned for the night, or back into research mode? What identity should take priority, and by whose rules does that choice get to be made?

I guess I've come to call what I am doing, "Experimental Anthropology." Experimental Archaeology is when scientist reconstruct or try to reconstruct historical or prehistoric technologies to see what energy it took to create, or reconstruct how objects would come to be how they were found. I am trying to create a cultural experience that was found (culture of poverty) to test data on poverty in the U.S. and reconstruct pathways that have been successful to also test the data and find ways to improve it.

Anyone want to comment?

I will write more about the organizational culture of my new position another day. I have some other great stuff I have learned about the culture of poverty from research done in my office, but also internal communication styles, habits, and behaviors of the office my desk sits in.