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I struggled alone; I cried alone. I’m still recovering from that experience. Alvernia, taking classes at night. In fall of 2012, she was presented with an opportunity to use that painful but transformative period in her life to serve others in the community on the brink of homelessness. That chance came when she took a graduate class called “Poverty in America: Culture, Causes and Consequences,” taught by Jay Worrall, director of the Holleran Center for Community Engagement. A former chairman of BCEH, Worrall still serves on its board of directors and planning committee. Developing BCEH’s strategic plan would make a great capstone project, he realized. So he asked his class for volunteers. At first, Carter stayed silent — the terror of nearhomelessness still felt too fresh. But a few weeks later, no one had stepped forward. “I felt it was a sign to get involved,” says Carter. Worrall and Carter submitted the plan to Gerald Vigna, coordinator/director of the program and her academic adviser. Dr. Vigna approved it, and Carter went to work. Meeting regularly with both Worrall and Sharon Parker, BCEH’s executive director, Carter completed the plan in just four months. “We’d struggled with this plan a long time,” Parker says, referring to BCEH’s board of directors. “Most of us are running agencies, working with the homeless, working on policy and regulations. We’re not strategic planners. I dumped this enormous amount of information on Robin, and we had a couple of meetings. When I read her draft, I was blown away. She distilled our scattered ideas and visions and goals and objectives into a format we could work with. We were very impressed.”
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In May, Carter presented her draft to BCEH’s board of directors. “I’ve done a couple of these capstones now, and this is the one that was most inclusive of the community,” Worrall says. “Robin did a fantastic job of managing the needs of her academic project and the needs of a nonprofit agency in our community.” With its formal adoption by the board in August, Carter’s plan will now guide BCEH through 2018. Meanwhile, Carter continues to seek solutions. As before, she works by day, attends class at night and manages to care for her daughters, aged 17, 15, 13 and 10. They’re the bright spots in her life. She also is excited by her doctoral research. Many Berks County residents care about homelessness in their community and want to help, but don’t know where to start, she says. Through her research, she hopes to identify ways the community can come together to share its collective wisdom and resources. “Local solutions developed at the local level can lay the foundation for meaningful change,” she says.
Alvernia University Magazine
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