Michelle's Dedication

Michelle with her son attending our candlelight vigil.

In the fall of 2004, Michelle Bailey began volunteering at our Bay Area Community Service Center. In an email shortly after her first visit, Michelle wrote, “I believe in what Covenant House California is doing and respect the way you are doing it. I would very much like to help in some way if possible.”

She suggested teaching, tutoring, providing homework help or seeking out donations aspossibilities. In addition, she asked “What if I ran practice interviews for the kids? How about polishing and maximizing the impact of their resumes?” To us, these ideas sounded great-and Michelle followed through on all of them.

With her wealth of teaching and life experiences, she needed little direction, creating her own opportunities to meet clients and get them started with educational activities. One young man, Bryan, expressed interest in getting his GED, but he worried that he was “so bad at math.” Michelle met with him and patiently assessed his abilities, coaching and encouraging him. She discovered that Bryan was actually quite adept at math, but had his own code of symbols to work out problems, something he had never felt comfortable revealing before. She helped focus his abilities so that he could prepare for the GED. His test date has been scheduled for this summer.

There are many volunteer stories like this one about Michelle. She takes the clients seriously and her dedication is rewarded when the kids open and up and reveal themselves to her completely. She is truly gifted in working with our youth, and is also a joy to be around whether you are a Covenant House youth, a staff member, or a fellow volunteer.