A Catalyst for Change
Themis Vargas is an Americorp member working at Touching Miami With Love (TM) in the Overtown Community of South Florida. In June of 2008 Themis was a stay at home mom who was afraid of her neighborhood and her neighbors. She had been living in Overtown for a few years, but beyond her daughter’s Kindergarten teacher and a couple of other mom’s from the after-school program at TML, she didn’t know many people in her community. Those who meet Themis would label her as shy; however, reserved is a word that would best describe her. As an immigrant from the Dominican Republic life hasn’t been easy for her in this country. However, in the midst of all of this Themis has emerged as a Catalyst for Change in her community!
Her work through Americorp and TML has opened up new possibilities and they are not just new possibilities for Themis, but for others in her community. Now when Themis walks through her community she is no longer afraid. She knows her neighbors and her neighbors know her. During the tax season she helped many of them file their income taxes and made them aware of much needed benefits such as EIC. They now see her as an advocate for them and she sees them as her neighbors.
Themis’ own needs have been turned into an asset for her neighbors. As part of her work she needed to be able to use a variety of computer programs, but she didn’t know too much about computers. The Director of TML thought it would be a good idea to have someone teach her computer literacy and asked her if she knew others that might benefit from the class. As she began talking to other neighbors she realized that this was true for many of them as well. So, a computer literacy class was started at TML and there’s currently a waiting list!
Delia Caderno
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