Hello everyone my name is Jennifer!
I am working at an organization called Community Empowerment Fund (CEF). CEF offers savings opportunities, financial education, and assertive support to individuals who are seeking employment, housing, and financial freedom. The opportunities for employment and greater housing that CEF advances motivate participants to build personal assets, gain higher income, engage in a healthy community, and sustain transitions out of poverty.
I am really excited so far about my work as I have gotten a chance to form relationships as an advocate with the various members of CEF. I really enjoy CEF because the focus is on the relationship, rather than providing a specific service. The aim is to work with members rather than work for members. Ive also gotten time to learn more about the other advocates at CEF both in the Durham and Chapel Hill locations. There is special time for talking about ethics, values, improvements in the organization etc. that really help to strengthen our bonds and allow us to be more informed and better advocates for our members.
I think that my work at CEF ties well into the future, past and present moment of Durham. As Durham history is the theme of the week I will focus in the past. Many of the panelists that we had the pleasure of listening to this week during our reflection session touched upon the historical racial, socioeconomic, and institutional disenfranchisement that has led to the poverty that many neighborhoods and peoples in Durham are dealing with today. It is going to be a process to bring the disenfranchised people of Durham above the poverty line or out of their hard situations and I am grateful to be given the opportunity to contribute the little that I can. Everyday I walk into CEF and meet with a member I like to think that I am tackling a heinous history head on with what something even more powerful -- the future.
I am working at an organization called Community Empowerment Fund (CEF). CEF offers savings opportunities, financial education, and assertive support to individuals who are seeking employment, housing, and financial freedom. The opportunities for employment and greater housing that CEF advances motivate participants to build personal assets, gain higher income, engage in a healthy community, and sustain transitions out of poverty.
I am really excited so far about my work as I have gotten a chance to form relationships as an advocate with the various members of CEF. I really enjoy CEF because the focus is on the relationship, rather than providing a specific service. The aim is to work with members rather than work for members. Ive also gotten time to learn more about the other advocates at CEF both in the Durham and Chapel Hill locations. There is special time for talking about ethics, values, improvements in the organization etc. that really help to strengthen our bonds and allow us to be more informed and better advocates for our members.
I think that my work at CEF ties well into the future, past and present moment of Durham. As Durham history is the theme of the week I will focus in the past. Many of the panelists that we had the pleasure of listening to this week during our reflection session touched upon the historical racial, socioeconomic, and institutional disenfranchisement that has led to the poverty that many neighborhoods and peoples in Durham are dealing with today. It is going to be a process to bring the disenfranchised people of Durham above the poverty line or out of their hard situations and I am grateful to be given the opportunity to contribute the little that I can. Everyday I walk into CEF and meet with a member I like to think that I am tackling a heinous history head on with what something even more powerful -- the future.