By: Tawfiq, Community Engagement Coordinator
The summer has officially come to an and and with it, this internship. While it had some
bumps along the way, I would say that my time with ETCBC has been a mostly positive
experience. The one thing that sticks out to me the most if I had to choose would probably be
kids camp. This was a great complex learning experience and overall a fun time despite any
hiccups. The biggest takeaway I received from my time with ETCBC is probably a glimpse into
faith-based community work from two very different perspectives, under the same beliefs. With
ETCBC, it is a very open minded and non-judgemental approach, that accepts all walks of life
while still. This is how I feel It should be done and did well to break down some personal
stigmas.
On the other perspective there was one partner agency that showed what I would
consider a negative perspective of this sort of work, which will remain unnamed for this post.
Myself and some other coworkers described their method as a sort of indoctrination approach.
They seemed to prefer to focus on spreading their faith and evangelizing to new converts rather
than providing services or support to all. This is what I, and I imagine many others think when
they hear that religion is involved in something. I feel this a very reductive way of doing things
and It was very refreshing to see that ETCBC is not like this.
To close I have almost no negative things to say about my time with ETCBC. I have learned a
lot about the field, faith and myself and met many great new people. I look forward to returning
in the future should the opportunity arise.