Big Changes: Transition and Extension

Brian and I are excited to share some big news! ….No, I’m not pregnant.

But, it’s still pretty exciting! We’ve decided to extend our time here in the Dominican Republic in order to be able to participate in some projects that are going to result in some new challenges, more opportunities for leadership, and a more specialized focus to our work here in the DR.

Our “close of service” (COS) date for our swear in group is October 27th, 2012, but we’ve decided to extend our service until June 6th of 2013. In other words, an extra 7 months. Also, because of the nature of the work we’ll be doing, we’ve decided it makes more sense for us to live in Santo Domingo (closer to the Peace Corps office, central location, offices of major NGOs nearby). So, as much as it breaks my heart, we’re leaving our community in Villa Hermosa to move to the capital next month.

Here’s a brief run down of the projects we’ll be working on:

KRISTY

Kristy is going to be serving as the Peace Corps Volunteer Leader (PCVL) for the Youth, Family and Community Development sector. Responsibilities include:

• Developing community projects for new volunteers
• Helping with training and placement of new volunteers
• Ongoing support to current volunteers (general questions, reviewing grants, doing community visits to where the volunteers live, etc).

She will also be taking a bigger role in the national Chicas Brillantes initiative which includes:

• Helping coordinate all conferences and camps
• Supporting all Chicas Brillantes groups
• Developing the Advisory Committee and its role (a group of 10 Dominican girls that help in the planning and implementation of the national activities as well as being leaders in their own communities)

BRIAN

Brian is going to be serving as the National Coordinator for Construye Tus Sueños (a business plan competition and curriculum focused on entrepreneurship and innovation in youth). He’ll be:

• Fundraising
• Coordinating the planning for the National Competition
• Supporting Volunteers and Dominican facilitators teaching the CTS class
• Supporting previous winners of the competition and documentation their progress and success.
• Developing a micro-finance element for both the class and the competition

Both of us are also planning on continuing our relationship with our neighborhood in Villa Hermosa, visiting every two weeks or so to check in on my youth groups and Brian’s students that are submitting plans to the CTS competition this year. We’re hoping that this way we can give the community more responsibility, while still having us as a “safety net”, thus making our work in Villa Hermosa more sustainable in the long run.

Living in the capital and working on these larger scale projects is definitely going to be a huge transition, coming from the community based activities we’ve been focusing on for the past year and a half. I’m definitely a little sad, but I really believe these new responsibilities suit us well and will be a good opportunity to develop the professional skills we’re planning on using for the rest of our lives.