The first weeks! (Joy)

Hey everyone!

Let me share a bit about my experience so far. I’m in a little bit of a different situation; I started my internship three weeks ago, almost as soon as school ended. So today was the start of my fourth week. However, let me start off by telling a bit about the place I’m working, and my initial reaction to it all.

I’m working at the Laguna Relief and Resource Center (LRRC) in California. The center specializes in three different areas – homeless help/prevention, low-income family outreach, and disaster preparedness/relief. It sounds like an odd combo of things (at least that was one of my initial responses), but it all fits together in an interesting way. The center was started in response to a huge landslide that devastated the community and surrounding areas. A huge number of families lost everything they had; they were effectively left homeless and/or within the low-income family category. Instead of just raising money and dealing with the situation at hand, the founding members of the LRRC decided to make it a long-term project to prevent another catastrophe, help the families devastated by the landslide, and aid other homeless/low-income families then and in the future. The center has since grown into a much larger organization, and the emphasis is now mostly on the homeless and low-income family outreach programs, with a smaller program designed to prepare the community for potential disasters.

Initially I was planning on working solely with the low income families, especially since that way I could use my Spanish skills. As it turns out, I’ve had the chance to work with both the homeless and the low-income families. Both programs are coordinated within the same (small!) building, so it’s hard to be around and not somehow end up engaged in both. Occasionally it causes a little bit of strife when the homeless and low-income unexpectedly are forced to interact, but more on that later.

The staff at the center is one hundred percent volunteer, meaning that it’s hugely understaffed and incredibly chaotic at times. The upside is that there’s always a ton to do, and there’s NEVER a dull moment. Given my experience in Tier 1, I was a little worried about not having enough to do, but that is definitely not a problem here. Another huge plus is that I get to engage in a mixture of hands-on client interaction and more removed organizational/managerial work.

It’s been an amazingly eye-opening and interesting experience so far. That’s it for a general overview and I’ll provide more specifics next time!

Joy