莎拉•保卢斯 takes her daily To Do list in stride: Create a resource guide, 构建并填充数据库, 参观州立监狱……
事实上, this might not be the typical kind of service that people expect 从 AmeriCorps, 而是作为美国志愿队的第一个成员 明尼苏达州惩教署 通过 明尼苏达恢复队, Paulus is helping her team fight one of the persistent public health crises today: Opioid addiction. 作为复原队的项目协调员, she is part of a larger movement to help organizations build capacity in order to quickly and thoughtfully address the opioid epidemic.
22岁的Paulus毕业于 芝加哥洛约拉大学 in 2018 with a degree in psychology and a minor in advocacy and social change, 她于2018年9月开始了为期一年的工作. She said she appreciates how her service allows her to “advocate for people,即使是在幕后.
“I’m a point person for a lot of the opioid-related things here at the Department of Corrections,保卢斯解释道. “The DoC had started a lot of the work before I arrived, but now I can step in and take over and oversee that, and they can have someone who is solely focused on those items.”
Her responsibilities include creating resource guides about opioid use disorder treatments and tracking clients who leave the corrections system in order to maintain data on their medications and treatment plans. She also monitors the latest news and research on opioid use disorder and shares with staffers at the Department of Corrections. MORe Corps members like Paulus are placed with partner organizations to strengthen prevention programs, 获得护理的机会, 干预措施和治疗后支持.
追求有意义，以研究为导向 经验
“我刚毕业，就知道我想这么做 get a job that was meaningful, hands-on and where I would learn a lot. 我有一个 research position in college and was hoping to find a position where there would be research as an aspect of the service,”她说。. “我也希望如此 would guide me toward a more specific career down the road, which this 肯定有.”
One of Paulus’ most impactful projects has been building and updating a database that tracks inmates with a history of opioid use disorder. When inmates enter a prison facility, they take an assessment for drug and alcohol use. Opioid use had only been sporadically tracked previously, so Paulus added missing data for every opioid user entering the prison system since 2008. She also condensed and organized the form to track for different data points, including how many were still in treatment during incarceration and how many continued treatment after being released.
“我 been able to track down hundreds of individuals currently serving time in a Minnesota prison who have struggled with opioid use that were not already in this system, which means there are hundreds more people who now have a chance to receive various forms of treatment, counseling and support services both during their time in prison and after they have completed their sentence and 又回到了社区，”保卢斯说. 她指出，该部以前 did not have a person dedicated specifically to opioid work, and she was 很高兴能帮助她的同事.
“我喜欢这里, and I would recommend it so much for someone who enjoys working at a more macro level,保卢斯说.
监狱康复服务
Although Paulus is based in a central office in Saint Paul, she also gets to visit prison facilities as part of her service. 她在那里观察治疗, and she helps conduct education efforts around 阿片类药物, 包括帮助举办“过渡招聘会”.” These fairs allow soon-to-be-released offenders to learn more about resources they can access in the community when they are released, 像阿片类药物使用恢复资源.
“Everyone who works in the facilities is so talented, and I really like just going and watching them all do their jobs,”她说。. 尽管她和其他人 复苏队 会员参加康复教练学院, she said she has also learned a great deal 从 her day-to-day service.
“I have learned so much about 阿片类药物 — 从 the history of the epidemic to how best to treat opioid use disorder, 诸如此类. 药物是如何起作用的，”她说. “And all of this is really interesting, and it was a huge learning curve for me.”
为自己创造未来，帮助他人
保卢斯将于2019年8月退役, the Eden Prairie native said that she hopes to use her AmeriCorps education award to pay for graduate school. She would like to stay in Minnesota begin a career that builds upon her AmeriCorps service and interest in advocating for social change.
“我肯定会再次为正义而工作 population, and I know so much about 阿片类药物 now,”她说。. “我看到我自己 doing something with that knowledge in the future.”
Paulus said that she is grateful that AmeriCorps has provided her with a unique high-level professional experience that is atypical for a new college graduate.
她的服务不仅仅是 她说，只是为了职业发展.
“我在这里学到了很多, 我的技能比刚开始的时候更丰富了, 但总的来说，美国志愿队很有趣,”她说。. “我通过美国志愿队交了很多朋友, and I’ve been able to get involved in the community a lot more.”
——谢拉·泰尔·斯特恩
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