Here at Rebuilding Together Acadiana, we welcomed a new AmeriCorps member to our team in August. George Arceneaux IV will be serving with us for a year in the CapacityCorps program,
a partnership between AmeriCorps and Rebuilding Together that places national service members in RT affiliates all around the country to help with their programs and expand their services to reach additional homeowners.
RTA has hosted CapacityCorps members since 2009, but George is the first Acadiana-native to join the ranks. He recently graduated from St. Olaf College, in Minnesota, but returned to Lafayette to join AmeriCorps and give back to the community that raised him.
From his first day, George showed an interest in learning more about the homeowners we serve. We showed him how we take in our applications, carefully going through each submission to make sure we understand the details of the homeowner’s situation. He was the most excited about speaking with our clients directly.
After several weeks of hands-on training in building wheelchair ramps, we sent him into the field to lead members of the newest class of UL Lafayette AmeriCorps on our Ramps & Rails projects. He and his team have just completed their third ramp.
Now that he has a few weeks under his belt, we asked him how he feels about his service so far: “I’ve not only been able to give a lot,” he told us, “I’ve been able to learn a lot, and see a lot.”
George says that serving in the city where he grew up has already changed his perspective on familiar streets, as though he were looking at them from a new angle. “I see them in a totally different light,” he said.
We spoke with one of our Ramps & Rails clients, Ms. Maureen in Crowley, whose ramp George helped build as part of his training at the beginning of September. Ms. Maureen had been very engaged with our volunteers during the project—she was already sitting on the landing outside her front door before George had even laid the final deck boards at the bottom—so we asked her how she felt about George’s manner. She answered right away and told us she thought he did great, and was “very helpful.”
“He’s gonna be really good with you guys,” she concluded.
