Goodbye

Today is the final day of my internship! It is with sadness and joy for which I write this final blog. I have learned so much during the past 400 hours over the past 4 months. I have learned how to fake drinking pop, to love Arabic coffee (albeit extremely strong), how to be a better hostess (Iraqis are the best host and hostess), how to smile yet sternly tell someone they had to change a behavior, how to navigate S.S. and IDHS, and how to simply laugh sometimes because their is really no other good course of action to take. I also have learned so much about being a Social Worker. I found that I may have a tendency to not leave work and leave the problems of work at work. I found that communication is truly crucial among an agency and I have seen how politics can play out in the work place. I have also learned the importance of good documentation and timely note taking. Personally, I have developed a whole new respect for vulnerable populations within our society.

I am grateful for the opportunity to serve this population and to work with the amazing people working within the agency. The staff work diligently to serve refugees and immigrants and often their work goes unnoticed. The pay is not that great yet this group continues to come to work and give it their best. The workers here truly have giving hearts. The clients are truly their focus. The story was related to me of an employment counselor who had a client come from Burma. Often times the Burmese refugees have been living in refugee camps in Thailand and they are really beaten down. The client spoke no English and had a new job which he needed to take two buses and a train to get to. He worked the night shift at the chicken factory. It was important for the client to be able to navigate getting to and from work on his own as that workers were not always available to take them. The counselor showed the client how to come and go. It was the first time for the Burmese client to go on his own. The counselor went at midnight when the client got off work and sat in his car on the street near the bus stop. He waited for the client to come out of work and get on the bus. He followed the bus to the next bus stop to ensure the client was able to navigate getting on the bus. He then drove to the train station to ensure the client got on the train and then drove to the stop point to ensure he got off and was able to walk home. He was not payed for this time he was simply doing it because he cared about his client and his well being. You might think that this was a bit excessive but when working with the population you understand. If the client missed one of these points he would have no way of getting help since that he had no phone and spoke no English.

I believe the skill I have most improved in this semester is my ability to navigate difficult situations. I really had to learn how to confront people. Confrontation is not my strong point. I am actually someone who will go out of my way to avoid confrontation but this semester I had to confront clients and co-workers. Can you say awkward? I feel that this is an area I really improved in though.

The hardest part for me was the goodbye with the kids I work with on Wednesday in the afternoon program. I told them I would be leaving two weeks ago but last Wednesday was spring break and we did not get together. As with kids, it had slipped their minds that I would not be back after this Wednesday. I told the kids at the beginning of the time and then I left a few minutes before the program ended to avoid a dramatic ending. The girl I work one on one with became very upset and kept asking me to come to various events to see her at or attend with her. I simply gave her a hug and encouraged her that she would do good in school. I also encouraged her to do well in school because she wants to be a teacher and then I ensured her that someone else would be coming to take my place and she would get have fun with a new aid. Such a hard thing! It made me want to cry but I knew I could not make promises to her that I could not keep.

So I end by saying, "Thank you Lord for this great opportunity!" I learned so much.

Another Day!

I woke up this morning to the alarm, rolled over and promptly turned the alarm off. An hour later, I woke up to the alarm again and decided it would not hurt to sleep another 30 minutes. It will only cause for crazy rushing around before time to go to work. Thirty minutes later, I wake up and lay in bed and desperately try to come up with a reason to not go to my internship today! Ugh, calling in sick won't work because it would be a flat out lie. Mental health day? Who ever heard of that? No, I can't call in and say I need a mental health day. Personal issue? Hum, now that could work! Sigh, if I don't go today then I have to add a day onto the end of my internship. I get out of bed and start slamming stuff around trying to get ready. I rush into Rayana's room and attempt to wake her up. She wakes up and starts laughing at me. I roll my eyes. This girl is one and laughing at her Mother pitch a fit because she has to go to work. If only she understood I am not trying to funny right this minute. I am frustrated. She continues to laugh. I mean really who wakes up on a gloom Thursday in a such a good mood.  Sigh for yet a third time. Begin talking to self. Why do you not want to go today? I am so over it! I have worked seven days a week for the past three months with only two days off. I'm tired of this. Anyway, I don't want to go transport clients back and forth and spend my day in the car. Ugh, the new summer interns are starting and the new girl is really rude. It's raining I don't want to be outside in the rain. The lady over interns is passive aggressive and rude. Heidi is writing a grant and she has not passed along my readings for the past two weeks nor has she set up the work for me she promised. Finally, we are ready to walk out the door. We get in the car and we drive to the first red light. I stop and sit waiting for the light to change. Sitting, sitting, sitting. The car behind me lays on the horn. Who is this dumb, dumb honking at? Oh my, this dumb-dumb is honking at me. I am sitting at a green light. Start driving. I look at my phone and I see a message. I open it and it is a video clip. I start listening and it is talking about God opening the eyes of your heart to be able to see things as he does. Oh Lord, I feel convicted. "Lord,  help me today and remind me I am helping people. I am bringing light into the darkness of some tormented lives! I am the light in their worlds. These people need my assistance." Ok, better now. Today will be a good day because I will make this day a good day. I will put a smile on my face and keep going.

All that said, I enjoy my internship but this agency I feel has a high level of burn out. An intern started and went through training with me. She was supposed to finish at the same time as me. By the end of January she was coming to work everyday a complete grump. By mid Feb she quit. I had lunch with the social worker on staff and we were discussing the same thing. The agency does nothing to encourage staff or to deal with staff stress. She works as a social worker at another agency and they do a lot to work with employees on dealing with there stress level. The social worker has asked on several occasions if someone could come and speak to staff about stress and techniques to reduce stress. Her attempts have been shot down. I actually feel bad for the employees. They are under paid and overworked. I understand that they are doing much to serve others and help the community but I do not feel this a job I could do long term. I think that burn out level would reach its peak and I would not make it a full year.

I am happy that I have my social work friends to talk to and to keep me going on my journey!

Ethical Issues

I was assigned the job of taking clients to the chicken factory this past week.What an experience! I was a little overwhelmed. All my clients were desperate for jobs but I wondered if this was truly the best job. The chicken factory (my perspective) is a horrible place. It smells! The employees work very long hours with a 30 minute break and they are paid minimum wage. The staff is predominately Hispanic the exception being those who World Relief gets hired on there. The staff is not required to speak English which is a plus and does provide an opportunity for those who are unable to communicate fluently in English. The fact these individuals are paid so little is the issue I have. Most factory jobs pay at least 10$ an hour because factory work is very hard. These individuals are paid minimum wage and are forced to pay 150$ a month in union dues as well as buying there own safety protection in order to work in the factory.  As a social worker, I was happy that these individuals were able to find employment but I felt torn and as if I needed to advocate for better work conditions as well as more fair employment. I understand that these jobs are temporary jobs which families work while trying to move on to something better but what happens when they are unable to move on?

I am reminded once again of how important it is for everyone in the agency to be on the same page and for good communication to exist within the agency. I picked up a client (same as before) who refused to put his son in a car seat. I had to stop the car on three occasions and tell the father I would not drive until the kid was placed in a car seat. He would wait until I would start driving and out the kid would come. It was frustrating. When I returned to the agency I told the caseworker I did not want to transport the family unless the Father clearly understood I would stop the car and they would have to find transportation home if the child came out of the car seat. The caseworker seriously responded I have the same issue with this family but how can I force the child to stay in a car seat or the father to make him ride in it? I calmly stated back that no matter what I would not drive if little tot was not fastened into the car seat. I told him, I have a child and should something go wrong while traveling and something happen I would be responsible and I will not risk my own family nor my future employment over something so silly. As I communicated with Heidi over the happenings of the week, I mentioned the situation. She was very alarmed because a situation in which children are not riding in a car-seat could close the agency down. It is so important for everyone to be on the same page and for communication with the agency be the best to prevent situations such as this.

Dealing With No!

The adventure continued for yet another week. One interesting moment that particularly stands out in my mind is being told, NO! I picked up a family of four to transport to the doctor. The family had two small children. The little girl went into her car seat just fine and I told the father the little boy would also need to be put in a car seat. I got back in the van and waited. The Mother climbed in the van with her 3 year old son and they sat three rows back from the front of the van. The father explained that he needed to run back inside so I sat waiting. I noticed that the Mother laid her son in her lap but since she spoke no English I did not comment on the fact he needed to go into the car seat. The Father returned and said we are ready. I told the father once again that he just needed to put the son in the car seat before we would be able to take off. He talked in Arabic to the Mother who looked at me and said, NO! I said back, "Oh, I know it is such a pain to have a little one in the car seat but really he has to go in one! I explained about the law and the Father and Mother looked back at me and said, NO! The Father proceeded to explain the son would cry and does not like the car seat so it just would not work. After three attempts of politely trying to explain the necessity of the car seat, I finally stated to the Father, "I am sorry but you are running late to your doctor's appointment. I will not be able to move the car until the child is in a car seat. We can sit here if you would like but I won't be able to move until he is in a car seat." After a few moments of the parents speaking to each other in Arabic the Father crawled in the back seat and put him in the seat. The little boy never cried and I sighed for relief. This was an interesting moment. I do not believe I have ever had a grown adult which I had to stand up to in this manner. Thankful the conflict ended well and I went on to have pleasant conversation with the family. 

Throughout the past week, I have been focusing on self-care. When I am home and something comes to my mind I write it down and then I dismiss it from my thought. If it is something that is eating at me I remind myself that this is my time to enjoy with my family, friends and myself and tomorrow I will worry about tomorrow's problems. I am also trying to make time each day to meditate and focus my energy on positive thinking. 

Bed Bugs

I was walking into a home visit when my cell phone started vibrating alerting me to the fact I had a text message. I knocked on the door and begin reading the text. I hear the family coming down the hall hollering, "hello". The door opens and I nearly faint as I read the last of the message. "Ally,  this family has serious outbreak of bedbugs. Don't sit down while visiting." Ok, I can do that not so bad right? Ugh, then I realize I have spent the past two days working with this family. I have sat in there house for two days. My coat has laid in their house. I have taken my coat and my purse home. My coat has hung with other coats at my house. No!!! Needless to say, I spent my weekend treating my coat and anything my coat came into contact with for bed bugs. Most likely I did not get them but I could not risk not treating my things and then find out I had them at home. My stuff was but in the dryer on the hottest settings possible  and hopefully any little critters have died. 

This week was a great week of learning. I did my first family pickup from the airport. The family arrived from Burma and there were eight of them. They were a delightful family and I enjoyed being their first United States contact. It was neat to see America through the eyes of a refugee. The drive from the airport to their new apartment was very entertaining. They commented and noticed things I would not have thought would catch someone's attention seeing to the fact it was their first time on US soil. 

I am learning how to communicate without language. It is not always possible to get an interpenetrate on the phone so we are left to point and hope we are connecting with the person and understanding each other as best as we can. It can be a great challenge to gauge the level of understanding the other person is exhibiting for what you are trying to communicate to them. 

Through all of this week I have learned how vitally important networking is. No social work agency is so large that they are independent of all other agencies. In order for an individual to fight for the right of their clients they must enlist the help and support of other agencies as well. Relationship building is a large part of networking. You must remain friendly and calm even when dealing with agencies where the staff are not as friendly. IDHS is an agency I must frequently visit. One lady in particular is very rude. I have thought about filing a complaint because she is condescending to clients and has no patients when they are not able to understand her. The department is supposed to provide translation but their translators are not always working or able to help out.  I have to keep myself in check though and try to very calmly and politely attempt to resolve issues in order to maintain a good working relationship for my clients. 

As someone that is seeking to develop professionally networking is important because it is the groundwork for my career. Networking will help me to find a job. 

Stress Management

This week I begin to feel the weight of interning. On Tuesday, I was assigned to home visits. My home visits were with families who had just arrived in the United States the week before. The first family was quite happy but they had moved in with a U.S. tie (family members who were already established and living independently on their own). The second family had a U.S. tie but they were placed in their own apartment (due to their family members not wanting them to live with them).When the family arrived at the apartment they found the apartment to be acceptable but they did not feel that the furnishings were acceptable. World Relief has a list of supplies which we provide to families. Each member of the family is supplied with a single towel, wash cloth, fork, spoon, bowel, cup, chair, bed, etc.. They are given one pot for cooking and no baking dishes. All the supplies are very, very meager. The family was distraught as to how they were to manage with these supplies. I felt for the family because I am not sure how I would manage with such meager supplies. I was so disturbed by everything that I when I crawled in bed I could not get my mind to stop racing with the challenges my clients are faced with. They are exiled from their country and they must run for their lives to another country where (depending on the country) they are treated as animals. Many of them are denied medical access and the ability to work. In some countries they are forced to live in a certain area of the city which most likely is a tent city outside of the city. It can take up to two years for their refugee status to be approved for entry into the United States. Finally, they arrive here to find a whole new struggle awaiting them. The majority of them are unable to speak English fluently so their work options are few. Some have college degrees or were practicing doctors at home only to come here and work at the airport in food service (where many of our clients are employed).

I am finding that I am four weeks into interning and I am seeing much more and feeling much more. There is so much work to be done in my agency and so few people to do the work. On one night, I stayed an hour and a half past my time to leave in order to assist two clients. The fact I stayed caused me to be late to pick up my own daughter. I realized that night that I needed to set healthy boundaries for myself albeit I am simply an intern. I was in conversation with one of the case workers and found she is considering going back to school or finding different employment. I believe she is completely burnt out with her position. I was asking the Social Worker what she does for self care and she seems to not have anything set in motion at this point either. She is working 7 days a week  attempting to juggle two full-time jobs. Self-care is an area that this agency is lacking in and one which they desperately need to consider. It is a stressful job. They are a commissioned by the government and there is a lot of bureaucracy employees deal with. The clientele is delightful but the majority of the clients are stressed and worried which adds to the stress load of the staff. The agency did have a social hour this past week in which staff members were invited to hear a guest musician play music. I hope they will consider making events like this a common thing and I hope they will require staff to make time to attend.

Unrealistic Expectations

When I started out interning at World Relief, I knew I would be learning many new things. I knew I would be learning about population groups, about working with people, about Social Work practice and many other things. I knew it would be a time of me being stretched and growing but wow, has God amazed me as he has taught and stretched me in my thinking and as an individual. The lessons of my internship are teaching me not only professionally but they are growing and stretching me as an individual.

This week I worked with disappointed families. It seemed that every client I was given was disappointed for various reasons. Most of the disappointment lied in unrealistic expectations. Many of them have expectations when they come to America and when they arrive here they are disappointed. On occasion the surroundings they expect to arrive to are so different than the reality that they become depressed and at times even suicidal as one of my clients this week. Movies set them to believe they are moving to a "downtown" type setting and then they arrive to find that American cities are a far cry from the beautiful downtown area which they think are the whole city. They are shocked and don't understand why that they can't live somewhere nicer but the concept of the housing cost is almost an unattainable concept to grasp. They are promised help with food and cash assistance but the process to be accepted is frustrating and not instantaneous. Family and friends have told them stories of the United States but often times they have immigrated here in past times when the economy was better and finding jobs was easier. The refugees struggle to grasp the fact that while in their home country they were a business owner but when they come here they can't find work. Most jobs are entry level which these individuals have to accept because they speak (in many cases) little English and employers are not interested in the amount of time they spent working overseas. They don't understand why the agency can't do more. In some cases they take it personal as if you can't do more for them personally or you should try harder. It interesting to see the stages that the various families are at in their acceptance of the situation. Some accept the situation quickly and are able to bounce back while other it takes months and you wonder what is going to happen with the family. A social worker told me that with most families it takes a least a year for them to accept the situation and for things to seemingly fall into place and for the family to become happy or adjusted to their new normal. What is amazing is the resilience of the children. They seem to make the quickest recovery in most cases. While they miss home, it is as if they are determined to thrive and survive. It is a beautiful thing!

I am learning more than ever never to judge someone. I am learning to never make assumptions. I am also learning to take time to listen to people. Take time to find out someone's story. What makes that person thrive and survive? What is a day like in that person's world? I am learning earthly things, possessions really don't matter. I am learning happiness can't be tied to things but rather to moments. I am also learning that as humans we can survive and thrive and even when we think we can't go anymore! Each day I go home a little more grateful for what I have. So all these things do not necessarily increase my social work knowledge but they make me a better person.

Shifting gears:

External politics greatly affect my field placement. The President of the United States determines each year how many refugees will be allowed in the United States that year. This directly affects my agency. The agency is run on government grants which help to cover the cost of the refugees coming to the United States and how much money they will receive once they are here. The budget which Congress, the House and the President agree upon affects the funding amounts which the agency will receive. The agency is a nonprofit but it is different in the sense that they are government commissioned (I think that is how you say it) to do this work. The government gives them so much money that has to spent in a fiscal year. It is important for members of the agency and clients to advocate for the rights of the refugees as well as to have their voice heard when budgets are being determined. Federal budgets as well as state budgets have a direct affect on our client base because all of our clients (refugees) receive SNAP and cash assistance from the state. These benefits in addition to health care are promised them when they come into the country. When state funding is cut the amount of the benefits our clients receive are affected. It is important for members of the agency to stay abreast as to current political issues to insure clients are receiving their promised benefits and that they are not being affect in a negative way by state policy.