Creating Questions

Things have become so busy around the centre and I am learning so much. I am enjoying everything and really trying to get everything I can out of it. I think I am doing my best and am amazed at how much pressure I put on myself by being a practicum student again, which I think is good. It keeps me on my toes and makes me think about practice even more and the work I am doing in it. Makes me pay attention and more aware of all the things I still have to learn.
I came in a bit early today to try and get in some questionnaires with different programs. I was able to complete two interviews with EFFORTS project and LEAPP Project. I ended up learning a lot more details then I had learned through just conversation. I was also got the comment from team members afterwards thanking me because it was a good review for them to even think about what their program is about and what they are trying to do.
Here is kind of an overview of the questions I asked during the interviews:

            What are the objectives of your project?

How many people work on your project at The Den? Do you feel there is more need than there are resources?

Where does the funding come from for the project?

What happens with a referral when it is made to the project?

What is the structure of the project? What are some of the strategies you use to facilitate the work?

What are some of the strengths of the project?

What is one struggle for with the project?

A bit later in the afternoon when I was done with the interviews I had my phone contact with Catherine and Eileen. The conversation went well, talking mostly about my expectations in my placement. We went over my goal plan again and made it more concrete. I was asked what kind of things I have been learning and what are my first thoughts on everything. I find it hard to answer these questions just because there is so much to talk about. If someone wanted to sit down and have a three hour conversation over a pot of tea I might be able to describe all my learnings, questions, and thoughts.. and it's only been two weeks. Ha, wait till I get home. People are going to ask me, How was it? And I am going to have no idea how to talk about everything. My go to answer is... it's going good, ya, lots of learning taking place... doesn't even start to explain it. But I don’t know how to do that without putting everything out there. Everything, which is too much for the time given to do a placement check in.
The last thing I did on Thursday was supervise drop-in in the evening for the first time. It did not happen last week due to too many people being on holidays, which is something that they don't like to let happen, but like in many non-profit organizations there just isn't always the man power to make things work. Going into it I wasn't sure I knew what to expect in concrete terms. Now after having done it, I think that is because it's not really a concrete programming piece, it's a hangout space to create space for life space interventions and create a safe space for youth to go and interact with supervision. It's really just that, a drop in, a time for youth to come hangout and chill. The FAN team takes part in the evening part of the drop ins. I think there are a couple for younger age groups in the early afternoon but the ones Eileen and the team takes part in are in the evening with the age groups their work is more mandated for. The first group is 12-13 year old from 5pm till 6:30pm, the second is 14 to 15 years old from 7pm to 8:30pm , and the third group is for 16 plus from 9pm to 10:30pm. Seeing the youth that access the drop in and learning how this works for interactions in this environment was kind of of the first goal I gave myself for my first time there. I think now after taking part in this time I am only going to get more comfortable with using it and understanding how to engage the young people in this setting.