Volunteer Reflection: Bill Hutchinson

I started volunteering at SYM 12 years ago when I saw an announcement at my church (UPC) asking for people willing to serve in SYM’s Drop-in space for young adults experiencing homelessness. I’ve been so blessed over these years to get to know so many committed and caring volunteers, so many gifted and effective staff and, of course, so many amazing youth. My role as a volunteer is to help make drop-in “go” by serving meals, getting youth set up with showers or laundry, playing UNO or just chatting about the day.

Occasionally, I get the opportunity to serve youth outside of the Drop-in space. For example, I’ve taken a youth driving on several occasions to help them practice for driving test and had a youth over for dinner who had aged out of SYM and moved close to my home. It’s all part of building relationships of caring and trust and serving people in our city who I believe God has called me to.

I have two boys, Liam and Micah, who have grown up watching me head off to Drop-in. They have come to know SYM as something I do every week, something that is just part of me. That is why it was such a joy last week to have Liam be able to come alongside me in this calling. Liam is home from his first year at the University of San Francisco and I asked if he would come with Phoebe (our incredible case manager extraordinaire) and me to help one of our SYM clients to get his new apartment set up. This was hard work and required a lot of elbow grease to clean a challenging space. I was so proud of my son for his joyful spirit while serving a fellow young person who needed some help.

Liam came to understand some of the many challenges that exist for young people, even if they are able to gain a roof over their head. For example, the entire time that we were helping clean and organize, Phoebe was listening on hold for someone to pick up and assist with getting our client’s food stamps restored after they had mysteriously lapsed. Ultimately, this phone call was left unanswered after two hours of smooth jazz and fruitless waiting.

Additionally, we were only able to get one load of laundry through (we needed time to do probably three more!) because the apartment facilities required a credit card to operate. Having a credit card to do laundry (what, no quarters!?!) Is not something we knew was a barrier for our friend. These were some of the conversations we had on our way home and I felt I could see Liam’s heart break and grow, all at the same time.

Bill Hutchinson
SYM Volunteer

Looking Up

I get frustrated sometimes when hiking because I have to pay so much attention to my feet. If I don’t keep my eyes down I will (and certainly have) tripped.

This reminds me of how young adults here at SYM explain their situations, that they can’t look up to see where they’re going because they are so focused on what is in front of them.

They’re so focused on not tripping, on meeting the basic necessities of each day, that they can get used to keeping their head down, and then they get stuck.

Case management is a chance for youth to sit down with SYM staff one on one and gain perspective. As a case manager I work with young adults to make to-do lists, we make phone calls that are exhausting and full of long wait times, I drive them to appointments, we research together how you get a Wisconsin ID replacement when you’re very far from Wisconsin. We cheerlead accomplishments, and listen to stories. We get to know young people and what makes them unique, and we help young people identify what direction they want to go.

If we only ever looked down at our feet, we’d never get to enjoy or marvel at the little things in life that add up to be the big things. We’d never get to pick what way we are walking. Case management allows space for these things to happen in the lives of homeless young adults.

Written by Emma Fix, Case Manager