Describe your internship experience. I am a program intern at Lutheran Child and Family Services. Lutheran Child and Family Services is a non-profit organization and is a partner of United Way. At Lutheran Child and Family Services they focus on providing care and counseling to members of the community. The organization was originally an orphanage, but since has developed many programs. Lutherwood is a treatment facility that treats children that have behavioral or emotional obstacles to overcome. The Trinity House is an independent living group home for young men who are transitioning from the Foster system back into regular societal living. The Impact program is a facility for girls that have been victims to sexual trafficking. SEED which stands for Spiritual Engagement Education and Development focuses on providing encouragement with growth in mind, body, and spirit. The Sharing Place is an assistance program that provides free food and clothing to families in need in the Lawrence Township, It is run primarily by volunteers. The Sharing Place is where I have been spending most of my time. There I have been interacting with clients, taking their information before providing them with services. I have also been picking up food donations from Walmart and food orders from Meijer. At the sharing place I learned that they have a partnership with a company called Gleaners. Gleaners provides food at lower costs to places like the sharing place. One good thing about Gleaners is that they deliver the food to us, so we do not have to go and pick it up. Gleaners also provides donated food, but that program does require someone to pick up the food. Another big staple place The Sharing Place receives food is through the USDA food distribution program. One project that I have been working on is getting all of the volunteers on our volunteer database. The new database was implemented right before COVID-19, so there has not been much time to get organized with the program. Usually when I come into The Sharing Place I will go to each volunteer and ask if they have signed in, if they have not then I ask them to sign in. Most will tell me they don’t know how, so we figure out if we need to make an account. Once the volunteers have an account it makes it easier to know when a volunteer will be coming in.
Examine your experience. My initial perception of LCFS is that there were so many programs. I was placed at The Sharing Place and initially I wanted to be somewhere else, because it didn’t seem as exciting as the other programs. At the sharing place it was somewhat stressful the first day, because we did not have as many volunteers as we had hoped. Whether we have volunteers or not, the food must be given out to clients. There was a long line of cars outside and everyone was working hard to get the line moving. After having some “normal” days at the sharing place I realized that it is a great environment to be in. There are volunteers with many different backgrounds, and they are all so nice. I believe it is a great place to make connections and to have a safe environment. Initially I felt like I would be doing things that a volunteer does and I was not too excited about that. Since then, I have started working on the volunteer database, I have gotten donations and orders from stores, I have helped with the ready set learn program that provides 100 uniforms to seven different schools, and I have started to work with the CFO of the organization on the Thanksgiving Bag Giveaway, and Christmas Store.
Articulate Learning. I have learned that communication is very important in this type of organization because there are so many programs under Lutheran Child and Family Services. I have learned that being ready for anything to happen is very important, because on the first day I explained that there were not many volunteers, so we had to figure out a plan and work as a team. I have also been working with a few different databases. The volunteer data base, a database that social workers will go to when recommending clients to the Thanksgiving bag giveaway and Christmas store, the scheduling database for clients to sign up for the Christmas store, and a database that has volunteer information. I have also started working with excel spreadsheets, which I have always been very intimidated by Excel. The CFO of the company assured me that it was not that bad, and she would teach me a lot of things. I am excited to learn more about Excel and to get the holiday programs ready. I have learned that managing an organization can be very difficult at times, because you must get communication from everyone. I have also learned that since Lutheran Child and Family Services is a non-profit organization, the budget must be reliable. There are many donations and grants that LCFS relies on, so ensuring that the finances are still coming in is an important factor.