A Quick Overview of Saturday's Outreach

 This past week, I had the opportunity to work with Chandler doing outreach at the local Affordable Housing Fair. This really takes me back to some of the most positive experiences I've had, from going to elementary and middle schools for safety trainings and demonstrations with my Martial Arts Studio, to meeting some of my longest lasting friends at college orientation, and later as a club organizer for the Geology Student Organization and the Secret Swords and Sorcery Society. 

It is a very different kind of energy. While guests that come to the museum floor are committed both to the idea of learning and the time that it takes to explore, with tabling, you have just a single moment to infect the passer by with passion, energy, and the information you want to give them. In this case, we were presenting our Museums for All program, whereby people with EBT (Electronic Benefit Transfer) Cards from CalFresh can purchase general admission tickets for just $1. 

Other than the rare interaction where the subject was not aware of what the EBT card was (or were thinking that MOXI offered affordable housing), reception was universally positive, even when they weren't personally interested in the museum or would not benefit from the program. It was easy to be excited for people when they were excited to learn that they or someone they knew could come to the MOXI instead of be bored in a nursing home, in their apartment or household with too little disposable income to go out and do interesting things, or lacking some of that hands-on science education they missed as a child. 

That's another thing: there were probably only 5 children that came by. Of the hundred or so impressions we had, the vast majority were young adults (19-35 years old) struggling to make ends meet in Santa Barbara. 


Another interesting consequence of tabling were the variety of inter-organizational opportunities. We had so many people with  involvement in MOXI's past, and all were interested in rekindling that relationship and coordinating with our programs. Even if only one or two come to fruition, I consider that a success and one that was built on a 5 or 10 minute conversation! We also had a reporter interested in doing a story about MOXI's Halloween Weekend and Superhero Camps hoping to film a news story days in advance of the actual events. 

Other than being really happy (and frankly energized after such a depressing week), I don't what else I can really say. I suppose that the last couple of shifts felt different than ones before the outreach: I really felt like I was making a difference on the floor. I was seeing just how impactful our programs are for vulnerable groups. Outreach is one of those things, however, where the true impact only is realized weeks, months, and years after the fact. If we do get a news story, field trips from nursing homes, field trips for our camps on Amtrack, and working relationships with the people who will help us do those things, then the impact of that outreach will have demonstrably grown. 

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