From the Heart of a Designer

www.youthworks.com
More than 360,000 people call Minneapolis their home, making the city the largest in the state. Minneapolis is a beautiful city with 153 parks, 22 lakes and countless opportunities for recreational and leisurely activities. However, behind all this glamour, the city of Minneapolis is struggling with issues of poverty, abandoned neighborhoods and homelessness. It has been reported that 16.9% of Minneapolis residents live below the poverty line and 40% have significant housing needs.
Youthworks! is an organization that takes volunteer youth and adults into the heart of the community to lend a helping hand. They team up with existing service organizations and try to meet the needs of residents in the city. Youthworks! is based out of Minneapolis, but also holds sites all across the United States, and a few additional sites in Mexico, Puerto Rico and Canada. Groups of thirty to seventy youth anywhere from thirteen to eighteen years old travel to a Youthworks! site with volunteer chaperones and spend one week serving the community. Youth and adults form lasting relationships while leading kid’s clubs for underprivileged children, working with the elderly and reaching out to the homeless, helping with construction or maintenance projects, running a soup kitchen and helping at the local Salvation Army. I have been on six Youthworks! trips to Thunder Bay, Canada, Duluth, Minnesota, Chicago, Illinois, San Francisco, California, Coastal, North Carolina and Brooklyn, New York. Each trip is amazingly memorable and was such an eye-opening experience.
Youthworks! is a faith-based organization who seeks to show the community that people care about them. Whether kids pick up trash in a park, help build a house, serve soup at a homeless shelter or play games with kids who live on the street, they are showing their love for service and their passion to help make a community a better place to live. Once people have an opportunity like this - to go out of their comfort zone and submerge themselves into the sometimes harsh reality of our world - they come back changed from the experience.

Posted by Jenna Schuder at 3:18 PM | Permalink

I visited the Midtown Market on Lake St. for the first time today. Two girls and I got up very early this Saturday morning and made the tip across town. The city was calm, not many people were out - the only surrounding noise was that of the early morning traffic. Not knowing what to expect, I kept an open mind as we got off the bus and continued to walk down Lake St. to our destination.
I was surprised at the size of the building in which the world market is located. I half expected scattered white tents to be covering wooden tables which displayed every eclectic good you could think of. But nonetheless, I was pleasantly surprised and was excited to explore the things which lied beneath the handsome Midtown Market sign that rose high above the roof of the building.
As I followed the two girls through the main doors, my surroundings were almost overwhelming. There was immediately so much to take in. The three of us just stood in the main entrance for a bit, examining the booths and displays around us. There were colors everywhere - in the decorations, the food, the crafts, and clothing, and even the lights. Strings of multicolored lights hung from the ceiling, each lantern glowing calmly. Because we had arrived so early, the vendors had not opened their booths yet. Black netting hung from the ceiling around their things. Even though we were disappointed in the fact that we had come too early, we continued to slowly walk around the market, observing the landscape before us.
There were some early morning customers - buying coffee and reading the paper, but other than those few people, only employees were setting up for the day.
It's strange to think that there can be energy from such little commotion. I was surrounded by a few busy workers, moving things from here to there, but other than that, there was little movement - as if everything was still sleeping. But oddly enough, there was a vibe about this Midtown Market, an energy, which seemed to be present, despite the absence of people. I could feel energy in the movement of colors throughout the building; every display seemed to portray a certain life. The market felt fresh and alive, and I tried to imagine what the atmosphere would be like when the place was bustling with people.
The girls and I continued to explore the building - the space outside the market entrance. There was a completely different feel to the building - it almost felt dead. The colors changed immediately from bright, happy and vibrant, to dull, still and lifeless. There were more people in the walkways, but still the energy was vanished.
So in this sense, I believe energy is something that can be felt and aroused by your surroundings. The colorful and busy atmosphere of the Midtown Market created a sense of alertness and joyfulness. I think the energy can be transferred by people, giving a friendly hello or a simple smile. When someone takes a piece of the market home with them, they take a part of the energy with them.
The energy I observed at the Midtown Global Market was purely emotional. I'm fascinated by the way people interact in this sort of setting with the eclectic surroundings. I enjoyed my visit to the market on Lake St. and I intend to go back and bring more people when there are exciting events and many people to observe this idea of energy more closely.

Posted by Jenna Schuder at 1:03 AM | Permalink