Family relief Nursery: abuse and neglect prevention program
I am currently working as an interventionist at the Volunteers of America Family Relief Nursery. I work with preschoolers and their families providing support as they work their way out of whatever situation has lead them to seeking our services. We provide a therapeutic classroom setting for the children at least twice a week for half a day. This is extremely important as many of these children have experienced trauma in their pasts and sometimes even their presents. We also do home visits with the family to ensure that they are receiving the support they need to help themselves move forward. It really is great work that I am proud of.
However, The work I do, is only part of my story...
My journey throughout this term has not gone as planned-to say the least. A sudden disruption in my original plan left me feeling hurt, confused, lost, and questioning not only the work I’m doing, but my future in this kind of work- “social work.” I wasn’t sure if I wanted to focus my project on the work I was currently doing or completely refocus and do something different. I was feeling so disheartened by my original experience and my sub-par experience with the School of Social Work, that a part of me wanted to literally, “walk out;” walk out on the degree, walk out on the profession, and walk out on the causes and passion that lead me to this work in the first place. I was at a crossroad and feeling a lot of pressure to make some really important decisions, very quickly. Not only did I need to figure out what I was going to do about my degree and graduation, I also had to figure out what I was going to do for this class. I had a lot to consider and my state of mind, motivation, and confidence had been severely shaken. This journey would prove to be, at least in part, my project for this class.
After I lost my internship (a graduation requirement for my degree) which was also my project for this class, I fell into what I now realize was a state of depression. The circumstances surrounding that event ate away at me for weeks. Despite the support I was receiving from most of my peers, professors, and classmates, I felt really alone and unsure. Amid all of this, I was trying to figure out how I was going to embrace this class and this project when I barely wanted to do this work anymore. How was I going to be an, “effective change agent” while working in a field I was quickly losing faith and respect in? How was I going to be authentic and true to the work I was doing in this class when I was in the process of questioning everything I had done for the last two years of my life? How was I going to do all of this when all I really wanted to do was stay in bed all day?
Several weeks came and went and I was stuck in this place of limbo. I didn’t know what I was going to do, if I was going to get a new new internship or if I even wanted one. I struggled to keep going to classes and did the best I could to stay on task in my classes but it was increasingly difficult when I wasn’t even sure if I’d get to graduate on time, even if I did the work. While I knew I still needed to find a way to complete the work for this class, I was still really hesitant to just use my work with the Relief Nursery as an easy way to complete the course work. My heart simply wasn’t in it. I wanted to be real and I wanted to feel like what I was doing was authentic and driven by passion, not just necessity.
As the weeks past, I never stopped thinking about my obligations for this class and this project. In fact, I think in many ways it kept me going at times. That nagging stress and pressure to find that passion I was desperately grasping for, kept me getting up and going despite the enormous pull I felt to just walk away.
Finally, things started to settle and the sting from what I perceived to be my failure started to fade, I started to see the work I was doing at the Relief Nursery in a different light. I also started to see myself and what I bring to that work in a different light. I realized that despite everything that was going on and despite feeling like I was in no way an, “effective change agent,” I had been doing really incredible things without even realizing it. I was effecting change not only within the organization, but within myself as well.
So what did lead me to this work? Why did I choose to pursue a degree in field that is generally underpaid and disrespected? Why did I move to Portland just to go to PSU’s School of Social Work? Why do I want to call myself a social worker? These were just some of the questions I found myself pondering on a nearly daily basis through the course of this term. The answer to all of these questions is pretty simple. I just want things to change. I truly believe that I can effect change and that is my passion. I also believe that change is only possible if people actively engage in the process at every level. That is what lead me to this work and that is how I know I am an effective change agent and no matter what happens, I always will be, because it is just a part of who I am. Once I realized this, I started to realize just how much I am doing every day to effect change, even if I’m not where I want to be yet, I am doing the work and moving forward every day.
After I lost my internship (a graduation requirement for my degree) which was also my project for this class, I fell into what I now realize was a state of depression. The circumstances surrounding that event ate away at me for weeks. Despite the support I was receiving from most of my peers, professors, and classmates, I felt really alone and unsure. Amid all of this, I was trying to figure out how I was going to embrace this class and this project when I barely wanted to do this work anymore. How was I going to be an, “effective change agent” while working in a field I was quickly losing faith and respect in? How was I going to be authentic and true to the work I was doing in this class when I was in the process of questioning everything I had done for the last two years of my life? How was I going to do all of this when all I really wanted to do was stay in bed all day?
Several weeks came and went and I was stuck in this place of limbo. I didn’t know what I was going to do, if I was going to get a new new internship or if I even wanted one. I struggled to keep going to classes and did the best I could to stay on task in my classes but it was increasingly difficult when I wasn’t even sure if I’d get to graduate on time, even if I did the work. While I knew I still needed to find a way to complete the work for this class, I was still really hesitant to just use my work with the Relief Nursery as an easy way to complete the course work. My heart simply wasn’t in it. I wanted to be real and I wanted to feel like what I was doing was authentic and driven by passion, not just necessity.
As the weeks past, I never stopped thinking about my obligations for this class and this project. In fact, I think in many ways it kept me going at times. That nagging stress and pressure to find that passion I was desperately grasping for, kept me getting up and going despite the enormous pull I felt to just walk away.
Finally, things started to settle and the sting from what I perceived to be my failure started to fade, I started to see the work I was doing at the Relief Nursery in a different light. I also started to see myself and what I bring to that work in a different light. I realized that despite everything that was going on and despite feeling like I was in no way an, “effective change agent,” I had been doing really incredible things without even realizing it. I was effecting change not only within the organization, but within myself as well.
So what did lead me to this work? Why did I choose to pursue a degree in field that is generally underpaid and disrespected? Why did I move to Portland just to go to PSU’s School of Social Work? Why do I want to call myself a social worker? These were just some of the questions I found myself pondering on a nearly daily basis through the course of this term. The answer to all of these questions is pretty simple. I just want things to change. I truly believe that I can effect change and that is my passion. I also believe that change is only possible if people actively engage in the process at every level. That is what lead me to this work and that is how I know I am an effective change agent and no matter what happens, I always will be, because it is just a part of who I am. Once I realized this, I started to realize just how much I am doing every day to effect change, even if I’m not where I want to be yet, I am doing the work and moving forward every day.
Realizing my passion...
As I mentioned above, I'm an interventionist for the Volunteers of America (VOA) Family Relief Nursery (FRN). When I was job hunting and came across the listing for this position, I couldn’t help but think that it was made for me. I have worked with children, in childcare settings, for over ten years so I knew that I was more than qualified in that respect. What made this position even more exciting was that it gave me a chance to incorporate some of the skills I was learning in school into work that I was already familiar with. When I applied and got the job, I couldn’t have been happier. I was finally working, “in the field” and was doing work that I was truly proud of.
When I started at VOA I quickly realized that almost everyone I was working with was fairly new. It was as though they had somehow lost their entire staff within the last couple of months. Morale was low and everyone was a little lost. New people were left in charge of training slightly newer people in an epic example of the blind leading the blind. I also wasn’t provided (and still to this day don’t have) all the necessary equipment I needed to do my job. I had no desk, no computer, no phone…nothing. By this point, red flags were starting to pop up for me, but I really wanted this job and was so excited to have it that I just tried to stay optimistic and do the best I could. After all, this was my dream…right?
Several months passed and I was still without a proper work station. I had, however, started to become closer with other staff members. In fact, I had developed some really good relationships with some of them. As these relationships built I slowly started to learn more and more about why almost the entire staff was new and why we had no supplies. I also started to learn that morale around the Nursery was not good. In this work, burnout is a real. It happens all the time and it is extremely detrimental to the mission and the clients. Seeing all of this and wanting to find a way to effect change in the work I was already doing, I saw an opportunity.
Like I said, it was extremely important to me find a way to effect authentic change, over the course of the term, in the work I have been and will continue to do outside the parameters of this class. Finding a way to do that in long term work provides some special challenges. However, as I became more and more aware of the dwindling morale in my place of work, I started to make efforts to change that. At first I didn’t even realize what I was doing but as time went on, I realized this was my project!
When I started at VOA I quickly realized that almost everyone I was working with was fairly new. It was as though they had somehow lost their entire staff within the last couple of months. Morale was low and everyone was a little lost. New people were left in charge of training slightly newer people in an epic example of the blind leading the blind. I also wasn’t provided (and still to this day don’t have) all the necessary equipment I needed to do my job. I had no desk, no computer, no phone…nothing. By this point, red flags were starting to pop up for me, but I really wanted this job and was so excited to have it that I just tried to stay optimistic and do the best I could. After all, this was my dream…right?
Several months passed and I was still without a proper work station. I had, however, started to become closer with other staff members. In fact, I had developed some really good relationships with some of them. As these relationships built I slowly started to learn more and more about why almost the entire staff was new and why we had no supplies. I also started to learn that morale around the Nursery was not good. In this work, burnout is a real. It happens all the time and it is extremely detrimental to the mission and the clients. Seeing all of this and wanting to find a way to effect change in the work I was already doing, I saw an opportunity.
Like I said, it was extremely important to me find a way to effect authentic change, over the course of the term, in the work I have been and will continue to do outside the parameters of this class. Finding a way to do that in long term work provides some special challenges. However, as I became more and more aware of the dwindling morale in my place of work, I started to make efforts to change that. At first I didn’t even realize what I was doing but as time went on, I realized this was my project!
Becoming an agent of change...
My time away from my internship allowed me to focus more on my job. I began to appreciate the strengths of the organization and the people working within it. I also became acutely aware of areas that could use some improvement. Although I had been frustrated with the many shortcomings of the organization, my recent bad experience at my internship gave me a new appreciation for the staff and even my supervisor at work. It also reignited my passion to be part of that team. And not just part of it but an integral part of it. I wanted to be a positive force for my clients, my fellow staff members, and the organization. Now I just had to figure out how to do that.
One of the things I noticed happening a lot was that people were doing a lot of complaining, but nobody was talking to the people who actually had the power to change anything. One Friday I asked some of my fellow interventionists to join me at a nearby spot for happy hour. The conversation quickly turned to work and in no time I was in the middle of a vent-fest. As this went on I took mental notes of the common themes and asked a lot of clarifying questions to make sure I was understanding what everyone was trying to say. I too was feeling the same way as many of my frustrated co-workers. We were experiencing the same lack of respect from our supervisor, lack of resources, job-related stress, etc… I suggested we make some kind of action to address these things. Everyone was on board so we spent the rest of the evening coming up with a plan. That was my first step on this rather unexpected journey.
A couple weeks later we put the action plan into effect. It started with a letter written to our supervisor signed by the entire staff and then lead to a meeting with her supervisor. The results of these efforts were extremely positive. It ended up providing support not only to the interventionists but to our supervisor as well. It turned out that she also was not getting the support she needed and that changed when we decided to speak up.
Since that first set of meetings, several things have improved. Are they perfect? No. Is there still work to do? Absolutely, but we are moving in the right the direction. Change of course is slow, so to keep people’s spirits up, I started doing little things to bring us closer together and keep morale building. So far I have organized several staff outings on Friday evenings, implemented a “thank you” box (where people can leave encouraging and/or thank you notes to each other) that we hand out at our weekly staff meetings, and am currently working on planning a camping trip for interested staff members.
Although I stumbled upon this project and sort of unwittingly started doing it, the response and the change has been really incredible. Everyone in the building seems happier, less stressed, and more connected. We are focusing more on the good things and the things we have to look forward to rather than the negative and/or frustrating things. We are laughing more and having more fun together than, from what I hear, has ever happened before there. It has also helped me out tremendously on a personal level.
I was feeling so depressed and unhappy towards the beginning of this journey that I was really struggling to find the positive in anything. Engaging in this process has really helped me pull out of that funk and reconnect with the passion I have for social work, which is really, at its core, community organizing. In fact, it always has been. That is what lead me to want to be a social worker in the first place. I love uniting communities; whether that be a neighborhood, a classroom, or a group of co-workers in a struggling organization. With all the stress and pressure from school to focus on case management and change and everything else, I lost sight of why I was here in first place. I am here to bring people together and help them see the strengths in their situations and in themselves. That is the kind of social work I truly want to be doing all the time at some level or another. In doing that, I was able to find the strengths in myself and my situations, and that was by far the biggest lesson and the best, “walk on” moment I ever could have asked for during this term. I am now ready to walk out of this school setting and on to my future doing social work with communities and groups. Which, as I have learned over the last couple of months, can happen almost anywhere.
One of the things I noticed happening a lot was that people were doing a lot of complaining, but nobody was talking to the people who actually had the power to change anything. One Friday I asked some of my fellow interventionists to join me at a nearby spot for happy hour. The conversation quickly turned to work and in no time I was in the middle of a vent-fest. As this went on I took mental notes of the common themes and asked a lot of clarifying questions to make sure I was understanding what everyone was trying to say. I too was feeling the same way as many of my frustrated co-workers. We were experiencing the same lack of respect from our supervisor, lack of resources, job-related stress, etc… I suggested we make some kind of action to address these things. Everyone was on board so we spent the rest of the evening coming up with a plan. That was my first step on this rather unexpected journey.
A couple weeks later we put the action plan into effect. It started with a letter written to our supervisor signed by the entire staff and then lead to a meeting with her supervisor. The results of these efforts were extremely positive. It ended up providing support not only to the interventionists but to our supervisor as well. It turned out that she also was not getting the support she needed and that changed when we decided to speak up.
Since that first set of meetings, several things have improved. Are they perfect? No. Is there still work to do? Absolutely, but we are moving in the right the direction. Change of course is slow, so to keep people’s spirits up, I started doing little things to bring us closer together and keep morale building. So far I have organized several staff outings on Friday evenings, implemented a “thank you” box (where people can leave encouraging and/or thank you notes to each other) that we hand out at our weekly staff meetings, and am currently working on planning a camping trip for interested staff members.
Although I stumbled upon this project and sort of unwittingly started doing it, the response and the change has been really incredible. Everyone in the building seems happier, less stressed, and more connected. We are focusing more on the good things and the things we have to look forward to rather than the negative and/or frustrating things. We are laughing more and having more fun together than, from what I hear, has ever happened before there. It has also helped me out tremendously on a personal level.
I was feeling so depressed and unhappy towards the beginning of this journey that I was really struggling to find the positive in anything. Engaging in this process has really helped me pull out of that funk and reconnect with the passion I have for social work, which is really, at its core, community organizing. In fact, it always has been. That is what lead me to want to be a social worker in the first place. I love uniting communities; whether that be a neighborhood, a classroom, or a group of co-workers in a struggling organization. With all the stress and pressure from school to focus on case management and change and everything else, I lost sight of why I was here in first place. I am here to bring people together and help them see the strengths in their situations and in themselves. That is the kind of social work I truly want to be doing all the time at some level or another. In doing that, I was able to find the strengths in myself and my situations, and that was by far the biggest lesson and the best, “walk on” moment I ever could have asked for during this term. I am now ready to walk out of this school setting and on to my future doing social work with communities and groups. Which, as I have learned over the last couple of months, can happen almost anywhere.