Wow. Was today hard. Today I had two new clients that have been the hardest cases so far. One was a mother of a 18 month old and 9-months pregnant who is living out of her car. The other was a woman who lost her family's home though no fault of her own. Her apartment was illegal and deemed uninhabitable. She has never been back on rent and now she is working two jobs just so she can afford the motel her landlord refuses to pay for. I don't know if I'm going to be able to go home and shake these off.

Update #6

I am so tired today. Today we are working on our big project again, and now it involves calling subsided housing places and asking for information, something I do not like doing. But it'll help me with my professional phone skills. I can't believe there's only 2 weeks left. I haven't told my clients yet that I'm leaving and I'm not meeting with anyone this week. It's interesting, many people working in the human service field feel burnout if they grow too attached to their clients. I sort of feel that, but also fueled by politics as of late. Hearing of more and more cuts to these programs that my clients rely so much on makes me feel useless, and is very disheartening. I've been following the debt crises debacle, and I'm very dishearten and saddened by the results. I couldn't sleep last night because I was thinking about the more cuts that will be made to social services and it really concerns me. So many people really relay on programs that will probably have funding cut and it is hard enough as it is to help them. I'm living in Harvard sq, and it seems I see more and more people on the streets all the time. I have to start my paper soon, and I'm kind of worried that it will be really hard to me to kick my brain into school mode. My paper topic so far is very big and general and I'm trying to think of ways I can cut it down and make it more specific. That's all for today.

Update #5

I'm definitely getting better at self care. I've started working out, and I got to go shopping for a bit with one of my co-workers, something I haven't done in a while. I feel really good and less drained, but it's still frustrating to help the same people week after week look for jobs with no improvement. I know it's not their fault, and especially when a client has experience in a certain field, it can be really hard finding them a job, like fi they are a registered nurse, but there its hard to find open positions. One of my clients is mostly blind and it is so frustrating because it is almost impossible for him to find a job and he keeps wanting to apply at the same places. It really shows me the actual effects of the economy. Last week, a woman came in looking for a job after she was laid off from a job she had for twenty years. She wants to find another professional long-term job, but I'm not sure how easy it will be for her. She's really nice and has a family and it really saddens me to see her need our help. I'm also frustrated because often the clients don't show up, either because they forgot or some other reason. Today, twice I spent time before a meeting looking for jobs to apply to for my client, just to have them not show up. This makes me sad because I think it really hurts their chances of getting a job, because I know at least one of them doesn't have access to a computer.


In other news, we finished part of our big project, which is to verify information about our resources and enter them into a excel sheet on google. As annoying as that was, we are not doing it with Housing, which means we need to call each housing authority to find out about them. This is going to be frustrating because often no one picks up. I'm not really looking forward to this, but it will give me a chance to learn more about housing and where they are and such.

Update #4

This is a slow week. My site supervisors are away in D.C for training so we can't have client meetings. We are cleaning up the office, hanging up flyers, and doing any other little work that needs to be done. This week we are supposed to focus on sociocultural perspectives. This internship is the most I've interacted with people from other cultures. There are always people who come from other cultures in classes, or other parts in my life, but this is the first time for example, I've sat down, one to one, with a refugee from Uganda. It can provide some challenges, like language barriers or figuring out what their training in their country means here, and it's frustrating to see someone who has had years of professional training, and is qualified to get a professional, long-term high paying job, stuck in a cleaning job because they do not know the language here very well. Many of the people who come to us for help have come from other countries and are now in a country, by themselves, without family, with no job or place to stay. It has really shown me to be grateful that I have a support system here because many of them don't have that.

One thing that really surprised me when I started here is how many adults are computer-illiterate. I have always grown up with a computer in my house and my dad taught me how to use the computer before I could read. It's strange to me when someone comes in who doesn't have an email address or doesn't know how to use Word. I guess that I have been taking my ability to search the web for a job for granted. It didn't even occur to me before that many many people don't know how to use an computer. Sometimes when I help people I feel useless, because all I'm doing is looking on craigslist or doing a online search, but I have to realize that that is big to them, and something they aren't able to do without someone's help. I'm a bit scared for these people because our world keeps getting more and more technologically advance and almost everything is integrated now. I can't imagine not using my computer and checking my email everyday, but a lot of people don't know how to check their email, which sometimes gets in the way of them getting a job. I try offer to send them to computer introduction classes, but most of the time finding a job is their first priority or they are just not interested.

I think it's very different to say that Cambridge is diverse than to actually work one-on-one with people from all over the globe. It is very interesting and many times their stories are very sad. It can be hard working here, because improvements move slowly, but it's the little day to day things that make me feel like I am really helping them. I really hope to see one of my clients get a job before I leave LIFT.

Update #3

This is my 5th week here and I am already started to feel a bit tired out. At the same time I realized with my current schedule I will not have enough hours at the end of the internship. So my plan going forward is to let myself relax more when I am off work, lately I have not been doing much outside of work which makes me feel restless. I recently got a part-time job so I will not feel as restless and I have visits from friends to look forward to. My biggest problem is self-care. I don't do enough to relax after work. I am going to add a few more hours to my schedule so that I don't have to make it all up in the last two weeks. Next week the main supervisors are not going to be here so the interns aren't going to be having client meetings, instead we are going to be working on a data transfer project and doing other admin work, so I can pick up extra hours then. Right now I am working at the front desk for the first time which makes me nervous because it is the front desk for the entire multiservice center and I want to direct people to the right places. I am going to be here for only an hour and Britti said it shouldn't be too busy. I can feel that I am just letting myself harbor stress and I really need to find an outlet. One of my good friends is visiting this weekend so I'm hoping that I will be able to relive some stress and relax.

Update #2

Today is July 7th, I posted yesterday, but I felt today needed its separate update. It has been a long tiring day for everyone at the office. One thing about working at LIFT is I never know how my day is going to be. Sometimes clients don't show up and I end up not doing much or doing basic office work like phone messages, and sometimes all my clients show up and I have to jump from person to person. today was a day of positives and negatives. Negatives first. A woman came in today who was very nice but obviously very frustrated at her situation. She needed rental assistance or other help to keep her from being evicted. She came in half an hour late so we only had half an hour. Before she came I prepared a lot of websites to look at but she seemed unimpressed. She was expecting help directly from LIFT which we don't do. We call all the places I found but all were dead ends. I ended up just giving her the numbers and sending her on her way. I was disappointed we didn't get anywhere. But the positives. Today a haitian man came in and I was a bit nervous because of the language barrier. It was frustrating and awkward at first but once we called a phone translation service it went much smoother. We applied for SNAP and I found him a possible nanny job, they specifically wanted someone Haitian, and he has CPR training and other qualifications for nannying. SNAP will really help him out because he has no income. He needs money so he can renew his work permit. I really hope he gets it! I have one more client today and I am nervous because he is new.

Update #1

Today is July 6th. It is a hetic day for me because I am the only one in the office. This doesn't usaully happen, but Laureen, the other summer fellow, is working with the Bike project and Britti is doing summer intern training. Starting tomorrow we will have new summr interns who are even more new to this than me. I hope that I will be a good example for them and I will be able to help them. So far I have had a couple frustrating experiences with clients. Today one of my clients didn't show up which is really dissappointing because I needed him to sign a housing form and we can't get him on the waitlist until he signs it. Last week I had a extremly frustrating experience with one gentleman who came in for job search help but had very little interest in actually finding a job. He said he wants a easy office job ("like you have" he said) and constantly remarked about how tired he was. He saw finding a job as pointless because he said he would rather make money illegally. Working with him made me uncomfortable because I was not sure how to handle a client who took no interest in their own search. I have been working on my goals, and I want to talk to Britti about them tomorrow. I am getting more used to working here but it is sometimes hard because you never know how many clients are going to show up when they are supposed to. Sometimes I feel like I have no time at all, and sometimes I feel like I am sitting ehre with nothing to do because a client didn't show up. I am exicted to met the new interns I will be working with tomorrow.