SAMEEKSHA DESAI: WOMEN’S SHELTER VOLUNTEER

Third-year Ph. D. student Samee Desai has just started to volunteer at the Calvary Women’s Shelter in downtown D.C. It is a transitional, live-in facility that partners with day programs. The women there are dually diagnosed, which means they have both a mental illness and a substance abuse problem. They are a variety of ages and have varied employment histories.

At the end of October, Desai will be teaching a basic life skills course in conflict resolution for women at the shelter. The course will be held over a two-day period. She will also teach a financial health and basic financial literacy course later in the year.

In the conflict skills course, the focus is primarily on showing the women how to approach interpersonal conflict and how to understand and respond to new situations. This will be done largely through role-playing and some facilitation exercises. The women might be asked to work through the following situations: what to do during an argument with another resident over what program to watch on TV, or how to handle a disagreement with a grocery store clerk. The idea is to choose realistic situations and demonstrate ways to interact.

As the co-founder of a local nonprofit in Illinois, Desai considers empowerment and information-sharing important mechanisms for progress. She is volunteering with the belief that she may be able to refocus skills she learned while earning her MS in Conflict Analysis and Resolution—and with the hope that she might bring lasting change to the lives of the women she works with by helping them to create stabile lives outside the shelter.

Click here to listen to an audio clip of Desai talking about the role-playing and facilitation exercises she will lead. (Real Audio; 2 minute 55 seconds)