Union City: In Union City, we had a really good week. It was the first week to have a late evening and that was pretty interesting. We all got to sleep in a bit and that seemed to help the energy level. The times weren’t quite as organized as a regular day. Lots of appointments had to be juggled around for Spanish-speaking teams to not have to rush too much, but in the end it played out pretty smoothly. We got pizza around 6:30 for teams to come in and have a little something for dinner since we were keeping them until 8. They all had loads of fun and while they had fun staying late, I could tell they don’t want to do that all the time. 😉
Today (Friday) we had an Energy Specialist out for a wedding, so I got to fill their role. It reminded me of how much work it can be sometimes, but also how much fun it can be. Not to mention how hot it can get standing on a chair messing with a light fixture for 10 minutes. But the day ended on a real high with a few of us playing empty light bulb box basketball. I think it might become a staple in the office during breaks 😉 So all in all, a very successful week at Union City!-Hannah
San Mateo: As week three of Green House Calls wraps up, each of us are finding that efficiency is up and stress is down. This has made everyone cheerful and excited to continue providing such a great, free service.
To avoid complacency among our youth, we switched up all the teams on Tuesday. So far, we have kept the same pace for measures installed, but we are now doing the same amount of work in less time!
On Thursday, our Outreach Manager Marissa went out into the field to get sign-ups for the last few weeks of the program. She attended a bingo tournament as well as tabled at the College of San Mateo.
See you next week…-Daniel
Emeryville/Albany: This week in Emeryville, we all established common ground within the site. It has been a positive week of Green House Calls. Although we encountered many cancellations, the ES’s fished for Green House Calls at a phenomenal rate. I subbed for one of the ES’s who went to a college orientation and ended up changing 47 light bulbs in one day! That was an extremely fun change from all the other responsible things I do as a LIFT. The ES’s are getting along fine with their new partners and the quality of their work has not suffered. So far, things are working out fabutasticly. -Ilana
Hayward: This week in Hayward, there has been a lot of outreach. We had our torchiere swap and also attended the street fair. We have a lot of torchieres in our site and we can’t wait to recycle them. It’s surprising how in one torchiere you can recycle many parts. For example, you can recycle the wire, the aluminium that’s on the head of the torchiere and the torchiere itself. One more exciting piece of news is that starting next week we are mixing it up! In order for everyone to know each other well , we will be switching up all of the teams! Can’t wait for the outcome!-Isabela
Berkeley: This week in Berkeley we had another fun and productive week! Some of the highlights include servicing two more Cal Berkeley Co-ops (Castro House and Stebbins House), which had a combined total of 70 units, and successfully performing 30 more GHCs. This week we also welcomed our newest ES, TJ Asmore, who is a veteran to Rising Sun as well as the CYES program and who will clearly be a great addition to our team. In other news, our great managers, Ross and Tamera, have been working extremely hard (and successfully) to fill appointments and to keep the site running smoothly. Meanwhile, we are happy to report that as of now (i.e. halfway through the program) we are on track to achieve our site-specific goal of performing 250 GHCs by the end of the summer! Everybody here at the Berkeley site is looking forward to this upcoming week during which time we are scheduled to service approximately 30 more homes, as well 2 more Cal Berkeley Co-ops! Please enjoy the photos of our various ESs and managers around the office and servicing various clients’ homes!-John
Livermore: It’s been an awesome week in the Livermore site! We’ve been working on focusing on lower income housing, because we’ve already done a very large amount of upper income housing. We also decided to switch up the teams to give the Energy Specialists the opportunity to get to know their other coworkers. The teams have worked out amazing since the switch. I taught a lesson on money management and on getting along with coworkers. Both lessons were very well received and the Energy Specialists were very attentive during the lessons. The energy of the site is incredible. We all have a strong desire to do the work and we do it well! Hope everyone else is doing great!-Drew
San Leandro: Halfway through the CYES program, the San Leandro site is still rocking the Green House Calls. We started four house calls a day per team this week, making everyone at the site just a little busier. One ES team demonstrated a Green House Call to our city contact and San Leandro’s Senior Planner of Community Development, Sally Barros. We also managed to sign up an entire apartment complex, which takes some of the pressure off finding replacement house calls after cancellations. For our Friday professional development lesson, we watched and discussed a documentary about dwindling water resources and the struggle locals endure against multinational corporations over the rights to nearby fresh water. The movie, FLOW, illustrated how large corporations privatize the rights to fresh water, and then generate a profit selling this basic necessity to some of the poorest people on the planet. Many of our ESes were justly appalled, but more importantly we realized how crucial programs like CYES are to the well-being of people all over the world. -Will
Oakland: This last week, our team really showed professionalism. We began giving them the task of making phone calls to schedule Green House Call appointments. They performed extremely well and almost filled next week’s entire schedule with appointments! We will have to utilize their energy and knowledge over the phone more often. Also, we had a “How to be Successful” workshop. In this we talked about what qualities make a person successful and what goals they have in life that they can strive for in the upcoming years. It was a very uplifting week. Go Oakland!-Chris
Pleasanton: Well, our team is changing light bulbs like crazy! I cannot be more proud of their progress. We had a rough week, but it is only making our team stronger. It’s impressive how many revisits we have to do simply because we run out of time and light bulbs. We are almost to our 15 watt floodlight goal and we are only halfway done! I wish that our team has the same great progress as we get closer and closer to the end of the summer. I love that the teams are doing so well with each other. But to shake things up, we are switching up the teams next week, in hopes of having greater progress. Beside that, things are going fairly well. Ryan is doing an excellent job as an outreach manager. He is not a local but he seems to know about all the great events to conduct outreach at. He has been to the farmer’s market, movie at the park, First Wednesday Night Street fair as well as many great canvassing hotspots. Elizabeth, our manager, is just so organized it amazes me that someone’s brain can understand that much intricate detail and stay on top of everything. I am a lucky LIFT to have such intelligent Energy Specialists and amazing managers. Thanks for reading, ttfn!-Jasmine
Fremont: This week in Fremont was a busy week for everyone at the site. The ESes had some difficult obstacles, but they managed to persevere through it all. Also, the Fremont Site has been getting a lot of referrals, which is leading them into getting more Green House Call Appointments!!! Furthermore, the outstanding LIFT at the Fremont Site taught a lesson about “Time Management” to all of the Energy Specialists, which turned out to be very beneficial to the ESes as well to the management staff. There are only 3 more weeks of Green House Calls Left!!! And the Fremont Site is preparing to go out with a BANG!!!-Arbaz
Richmond: This week Richmond Energy Specialists are doing great! They are having a lot of fun getting together and servicing the community at the same time. They really enjoyed switching up the groups and getting to know each other better. Our outreach squad is doing amazing. Every time we get out there to the farmer’s market we get at least 25 referrals. Things are wonderful in Richmond we are growing stronger everyday!-Louis
