Editor’s note: As part of Xpress‘ Spring Nonprofit Issue, we asked residents to send in accounts of their volunteer work with local nonprofits.
Amira El-Dinary is an AmeriCorps Project POWER member and volunteers with Children First/Communities in Schools of Buncombe County. She began with the organization Sept 23.
After speaking with Xpress, El-Dinary’s position with AmeriCorps was eliminated by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Her last day was May 9. Her responses to the questions below were provided prior to her termination.
Xpress: What inspired you to become a volunteer with Children First, and what is your main responsibility?
El-Dinary: My role with Children First/Communities in Schools is in the learning center at Woodridge apartments. This is a cost-free after-school program in a subsidized housing complex. Monday through Thursday, we provide food, homework support and developmentally appropriate activities to students from Emma Elementary School.
I volunteer at Children First/Communities in Schools because I believe strongly in children’s need for safe and supportive spaces in their community; spaces of love that allow children to be themselves. Everyone deserves to feel safe, acknowledged and unconditionally held in community with love.
My education in human development taught me how impressionable children are. Children are sponges, absorbing information about how the world works. Their concept of the world forms at a young age. Anyone who interacts with kids has a special opportunity to contribute to the development of a person’s worldview. I want to show children resilience, confidence and compassion. By sharing these values through the way I interact with people, I am actively creating an optimistic future.
What has your time with the nonprofit revealed to you about our community?
My time at Children First/Communities in Schools has opened my eyes to systemic dysfunction within the public school system. When I first moved to Asheville in August, I noticed the signs advocating better pay for North Carolina teachers. Now, I understand the importance of this issue. The people who are trying to help children and build a positive future are doing so without the support they need. School staff are burnt out to an alarming extent. I see little benefit in the present school system. Children and school staff alike are worn down by this dysfunction.
What bit of advice would you offer someone who is considering volunteering their time to Children First or some other local nonprofit?
For those considering volunteering with nonprofits, get clear on your “why.” Purpose is an anchor; clarity about “why” fuels your action and ensures you don’t lose sight of what is truly important.
How you use your time and energy is how you spend your life. I choose to spend my life upholding the values I care about deeply. Serving others through a value-based lifestyle is challenging (anything that is genuinely rewarding will be challenging).
For those who want to support others, I offer this question: How are you allowing yourself to be supported?
Giving is about sharing the overflow; diminishing your well-being to support someone else’s well-being is an empty cycle.
