Antolin German Jr 

Elias Stuhr 

English 170 

27 April 2023 

The Final Dance 

When I was young, I often heard about the domino effect and/or the snowball effect. In case you haven’t heard of these terms, they refer to the process where something small can gradually grow into a larger movement or in this case a larger snowball rolling down a hill increasing in size. It’s important to acknowledge that the snowball is falling down for a reason. It needs people to push it up the hill not down. When we talk about individual contribution, we think of individuals contributing to society in a positive manner forms of this could look like volunteering or even non-profit organizations. Sometimes it’s easy for people to forget how much impact they can have on this world. We’ve all been guilty of repeating the line, “I’m only one person I can’t really change anything.” I’m here to rebuttal that statement to a certain extent. Individual contribution is much more important than we give credit for. In fact, individual contributions is the most essential step. As individuals we can’t wait around waiting for someone else to make a change or else nothing is ever going to happen. Individuals in a society have a role to take the initial step. That said, I don’t believe we can fully depend on individual contribution because that’d be irrational. Throughout this paper the organization I’ll be focusing on is called the Carver Center. A nonprofit organization in Port Chester, NY. Which was established in 1943 with the main mission of offering education, recreation and cultural activities to families and communities in Port Chester. I chose Carver Center due to my personal relationship with the organization. Not only was I a member of the center but I also got the opportunity to work and volunteer there as well. The time spent at Carver was truly an unforgettable experience. Carver was not only just a helpful place to get work done but also a place everyone felt catered to. They embody the true representation of community. Although Carver has had an enormous impact on the Port Chester community there’s only so much, they could do to address the issues Port Chester community faced. In a community individual contribution plays a pivotal role but it’d be unwise to underestimate the complexity of the challenges we face; therefore, I believe we cannot fully rely on the efforts of individuals due to the limitations we possess. 

Community centers serve as a beacon of hope for their communities. They’ve repeatedly demonstrated how valuable they are to our communities. Carver Center has had a phenomenal impact on the community of Port Chester. Not only have they catered to the community, but they’ve addressed and disrupted many social gaps in terms of education. Port Chester is known for its diversity and high immigrant population. A good amount of Port Chester’s population comes from immigrants. Predominantly from Latin America. Many of those kids come to Port Chester and are put at an immediate disadvantage due to the language barrier. Carver Center does a phenomenal job addressing this issue. They’ve created programs for these kids and give them the opportunity to practice and learn English. In addition, many of these families lack financial stability which affects their children because sometimes they don’t eat at home. Carver acknowledges these problems and prepares a certain number of meals for these families. I was granted the pleasure to speak to Mr.Winchester an event coordinator and mentor for the Carver Center and he stated, “I feel like our resources here at Carver are limited. Post pandemic around 2019 we were able to raise 308,140 dollars after the pandemic you know money was short, so we were only able to raise 156,340 dollars. It hurts me to say but Carver wasn’t able to help as much as it’s used to. It hurts knowing the pandemic hit these families hard and we’re not able to help them due to our limited resources.” A frequent problem many non-profit organizations face is getting funding. Non-profit organizations have good intentions, but they may face difficulties in executing them due to limitations, particularly financial constraints. Financial challenges significantly impact their operations and ability to provide better salaries to their workers. In addition, Thomas J Tierney a former, CEO, Author and philantropist from Harvard stated, “Today, many nonprofit organizations struggle to attract and retain the talented senior executives they need to continue converting society’s dollars into social impact. Searches for chief operating officers, chief financial officers, and even executive directors often turn up surprisingly few qualified candidates.” In essence, nonprofit organizations struggle to find qualified candidates who can successfully run a nonprofit organization. This is significant to mention because if these organizations aren’t able to obtain qualified workers, they’re not able to perform at a proficient level due to the lack of expertise. Mr.Winchester states, “Carver Center has been going through a rough patch these past few months. It’s no secret that working for a nonprofit org can be challenging. The aim is to have a positive impact on our communities, but you know workers have personal responsibilities too such as providing for their families, and some find it challenging to do so when you’re not getting paid the amount you want.” That said, I reiterate my overarching message that individual contributions are essential, but it’s not enough to address challenges on a higher scale. When we look at Carver Center, we look at it as an individual because it is a nonprofit organization therefore considered its own entity. It’s important to understand that Carver Center plays a huge role in the community of Port Chester but it’s also important to understand that Carver Center alone cannot address the problems the community faces. 

Many critics may claim that individual contributions are the only form of resistance available to address issues. I highly disagree with this statement. Although individual contributions are significant, they aren’t enough to battle systematic issues. In order to do so we need collective action as well as policy changes. Which will only happen with a combined effort. I had the pleasure of meeting up with Karina Lehan, the program and services manager for Carver Center. She stated, “The Port Chester population is without a doubt one of the more culturally diverse populations in West Chester. You would think that the education system for non-native English speakers would be much better but it’s not. The courses implemented aren’t rigorous enough. Sure, you go online and see high graduation rates, but they graduate High School and are caught off guard by the reality of the world. Here in Carver, we try to disrupt the gap in education but as you can imagine there’s only so much, we can do. For starters, ESL classes aren’t given every day they’re given during the Summer and during breaks. Which are the times that kids don’t want to do much learning, so you know how that goes.” In essence although the Carver Center makes a huge effort to address change their resources are limited. The problem runs too deep for a single entity to be able to make a change. We acknowledge the arduous work Carver Center puts in daily but sometimes the complexity of an issue runs so deep that the effort of a single person is not enough.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Reference 

 

Tierney, Thomas J. The Nonprofit Sector’s Leadership Deficit – Bridgespan.org. 1 Mar. 2006, https://bridgespan.org/getmedia/0f11d280-6ff9-4e4a-9f4d-5be7742cdfe6/leadership-deficit-white-paper-pdf.pdf. 

 

Winchester, Jaden. Personal Interview. 26 April 2023, New York City. 

 

Lehan, Karina. Personal Interview. 2 May 2023, New York City.  

 

 

Quart, Alissa. “Can We Put an End to America’s Most Dangerous Myth?” NY.Times.com, The New York Times, 9 Mar. 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/09/opinion/art-of-dependence.html. 

 

 

Ginsburr, Robert. Collectivism And Individualism: Reflections From A Pandemic.