I need a job.  Here’s a job referral. Next Please.
I need some clothes.  Here’s a voucher … the Salvation Army will set you up.  Next Please.
I need some food.  Here’s a food box. Next Please. 
I just got out of jail.   Here … jump onto my assembly line and I’ll get you everything you need.  Next Please.

Before joining the staff at the Precious Blood Center, I believed that simply handing people what they needed would make a difference in their lives. When I was working with former inmates in Nashville, TN, I often met five or six new clients and even more return clients each day. All I was capable of doing was to help with a few basic needs. If someone stopped coming to the office, I assumed they got the help from somewhere else.

I brought this assembly line viewpoint to my work here in Chicago. I expected finding a job for a youth would change his life. And buying a school uniform would get him an education. And making him a sandwich would keep him from robbing someone. But there were kids who would come once or twice and not be seen again. Where were they getting the help?  Their schools are just passing them along. Their families are struggling to make it day to day. Their friends usually get them in more trouble than out.

Over the next three years, my eye opening exposure to these daily and life-long struggles began to transform my perspective of the true needs of these youth.

The transformation came over time. I was sitting with Willie during the third month that I was at the Center. I was pushing him and pushing him (down the assembly line) to get a job and stop selling drugs.  He turns to me with absolute apathy and said, “Ian, you’re 23, I’m not going to live to be 23. I gotta live my life right here, right now.” Floored me.

Every decision that I had made in my life -- education, work, building a great group of friends, eating right, exercising – was formed with the knowledge that my energy will pay off in the future.  Willie’s life is different. Too many times he has seen people fall victim to gang violence, drug overdose, domestic violence, and incarceration. The people he knows often don’t get to become something more, don’t get to be 23. The people he knows just get pushed along by the system and the community. They get pushed along … and here I am pushing him along. Something has to change in Me.

How do I change? How can I really make a difference in the lives of these youth? Some clarity came just as Steve Delaney was rapping up his time at the Center toward the end of my first year. I was struggling with how little success I was seeing. I got a youth into school; he got suspended. I helped him find a job; he got fired. On and on. As Steve and I talked, he told me “Ian, you’re great at really pushing these kids to do more for themselves. I’m happy with just playing basketball with them.” Steve was right, I was still pushing and the basketball time was too few and far between.

Of course, this is about more than just basketball. The youth have a deeper need. As I came to simply spend more non-assembly line time with the youth, we developed a more meaningful connection. They came to trust. They found a place to turn if they are having a problem. The kids came to see that I push them because I care about and believe in them. They know they can share their true feelings without being belittled or disrespected. In time, we have been able to develop an honest, positive relationship. These young men, who had been hurt, manipulated, and disheartened by others in their lives, now see the healing power of being connected to another person.

Indeed, this is a far stretch from the Next Please approach. Truly getting to know these young men -- their families, hopes, hardships, talents – I have grown as a person and as a social worker. I have come to find great joy in their successes and great anguish at their failures. I have learned the healing power of relationship.

Ian Wilson completed his three year Jesuit Volunteer Corps Magis program on August 1, 2008. While at the Precious Blood Center, he has served as mentor, counselor, chef, job seeker, computer repair guy, and friend for the youth who graced this place with their presence. As part JVC Magis, he also graduated with a Masters in Social Work from Loyola University Chicago. He extends his deepest appreciation to Precious Blood Center staff who have each left a powerful mark on his life.  Ian will be moving to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to continue working to improve the Juvenile Justice System and to get married.