Blog 22: Mentorship

 What is the most important thing you gained from this experience? Why?


Aside from giving me so much quality information to use  in my senior project. I have gained a new perspective on community organization. I was able to see how it helps people, it has inspired me o also volunteer and give my time to organizations similar to CHAP. I have also gained confidence in myself. I walked into my mentorship not really having a clue on what they did. I kept an open mind and took things step by step. This showed me I can do well I environments that are new and unfamiliar to me.

  

How has what you’ve done helped you to answer your EQ?  Please explain.


Being at my mentorship is what helped me the most to answer my EQ. I was able to observe and participate with people who were dealing with situations that are connected to my EQ, first hand. It was easy to create answers because I had real life examples right in front of me.

Exit Interview

(1) What is your essential question, and what are your answers?  What is your best answer and why?

EQ: what is the most important factor when transitioning a homeless client from dependence on a homeless shelter to independence?

Answer 1: Assign each participant with at one or more advocates.

Answer 2: Communication and support among volunteers and advocates.

Answer 3: To bring awareness to the community about the program.
My best answer is my first answer. All three of my answers are very crucial in a homeless client’s path to independence, but my first answer is the most unique one. It is what makes a program like CHAP successful and set apart from other program.

(2) What process did you take to arrive at this answer?

Attending the Monday night CHAP meetings is what really helped me come to my first answer. At the meetings Advocates discussed their progress with their advocates, with that I was able to see the work they were doing for their advocates and what it provided them.

(3) What problems did you face?  How did you resolve them?

The only things that concerned me with my answer one was that it uses CHAP's vocabulary , at first i saw it as an inconvenience to have to explain the way my answer is worded, but, I realize now that is not too big of a deal.
 

(4) What are the two most significant sources you used to answer your essential question and why?

My two most significant sources would be my time at my mentorship and my interviews. Both of these experiences allowed me to get information from the people who are dealing with my topic every day.

Finance and Fundraising Working Group Meeting

Recently I sat in on and observed CHAP's Finance and Fundraising Working Group Meeting. This particular working group really help me back up my third answer  : The most important factor when transitioning a homeless client from dependence on a homeless shelter to independence is the act of bringing awareness to the community. All the members in the Finance and Fundraising Working Group offer something unique and different to CHAP because they come from different places. I think that this important in this group because it is where CHAP can get the money to provide for their participants.

Independent Component 2

•  “I, Nathalie Iannetta, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 35 hours and 30 minutes of work.”
•  My Mentor was the one who helped me most with my independent component. He provided me with valuable reading information that he wrote.
•  I did 5 CIRs and I read information on CHAP. The information really showed how CHAP'S model was made and what inspired it. This showed me how to go about creating successful community organization programs. By completing the Critical Incident Reports I was able to study the different working groups in the program, which gave me the information I needed to strengthen all three of my answers.      

     

Independent Component

My mentor has been giving me extra material to read for my independent component. I have been reading the packets he gives  me then going over them with my mentor in out meetings. The purpose of these packets is for me to understand the model that CHAP uses in their program.

Blog 18: Fourth Interview Questions

What is the most important factor when transitioning a homeless client from dependence on a homeless shelter to independence?

1.  What is the first step to try to get a homeless client to independence? 
2. What are some important sources you have collected over the years, while helping homeless people?
3. How do manage the tasks that come with running a program like this?
4. What keeps people motivated to stay involved in the program?
5. What is the most difficult person to get back on their feet?
6. What is the most common struggle among the people that you are trying to get back to independence? 
7. What mind set is important to keep when helping people in this way?
8. Do you think it would be more beneficial to have volunteers with a background in phycology ?
9. What are good ways to bring awarness to the community about homelessness?
10. How has awareness helped your program out?
11. What is the most important thing volunteers should keep in mind when working together?
12. What training methods are used to train volunteers?
13. How do you determine if a participant is progressing?
14. When are participants recommended to therapy?
15. What important life skills are taught to participants ?
16. How can you get a good relationship between an advocate and participant?
17. What is the usual time it takes to transition the client?
18. Is it important to have a schedule for the participant?
19. How much one-on-one time does a participant require?
20. What would you take on answering my essential question?

Blog 17: Answer 3

• EQ: What is the most important factor when transitioning a homeless client from dependence on a homeless shelter to independence.
• Answer #3: The most important factor when transitioning a homeless client from dependence on a homeless shelter to independence is recruiting and bringing awareness about the program. 
• 3 details to support the answer : volunteers for different groups, brings in advocates, brings in donations.
• The research source (s) to support your details and answer: my interview 2&3 helped me come up with this answer. 
• Concluding Sentence: This answer helps transition clients to independence by making the program that is trying to help them do so, stronger.