Week 4

This week I’m supposed to reflect on the culture at my site. Most days, it’s just me working alone, so I guess the culture is kind of isolated. This is juxtaposed with community meetings with food, and time to talk to people and get to know them. I much prefer the big group settings, and I think that having food creates a good atmosphere where people feel relaxed or like they are being taken care of. This is really important to me because I love to feed people when they come to my home which is something my family always does. So having food at an event communicates sort of a family culture to me. I’ve also noticed each of my coworkers has a different style of leading meetings/facilitating, so they feel of a meeting or a day really varies on who’s in the office. Although some days it’s totally empty, and I work alone, I’ve noticed a lot of people come in and out of the office– members of Soulardarity and people who have their own organizations related to the work we’re doing, and this creates a culture of friendliness and collaboration with people coming in and out of the building, with time in between to chat and hear about what they are working on.