What Can History Majors Gain From Volunteering?

It is hard to understand how impacted a city is by its one industry being removed. Merely talking about the hard times that follow is not enough to understand what happens. By volunteering at the Baldwin Center, history majors can learn first hand what happens when poor economic times fall on a city.

Classes studying American history, Michigan history, the automotive industry, manufacturing industry, and the United States economy would benefit greatly from taking time to volunteer at the Baldwin Center. The City of Pontiac was built around the General Motors manufacturing jobs and when those jobs were ended, hundreds were out of work. The current economic difficulties make the city a excellent analogue to cities suffering during the Great Depression.

Having firsthand experience with the effects of manufacturing plants closing can help students understand, for example, what a unemployed person was going through during the Great Depression, what striking coal miners in 1902 were faced with when they protested their poor wages or what kind of impact the Settlement Houses had on the communities they served. A modern day Settlement House, the Baldwin Center supplies food, clothing and education aimed at getting people back on their feet. Volunteering there can bring the past to life and give students a greater understanding of what life was like for people struggling to make a living.