Last Entry/Reflection

I can't believe that I have been at Red Cross for nearly eight months. I feel like I have learned so many skills that will help me in the future. I have learned all about the dynamics of a huge nonprofit, but I more importantly have learned about the people who make Red Cross possible. So much work goes into this organization and I think a lot of that goes unnoticed. People volunteer their time to do things as mundane as surveys and records, but that is what makes Red Cross amazing. Everyone that works their is passionate about helping people, even if they don't directly deal with them. Every little thing that is done in the office helps to create the services that Red Cross is known for.

I have to admit that when I first started this MPA I wasn't exactly sure that this was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I have always been interested in nonprofit and have volunteered throughout my life, but this has shown me that I want a career in the nonprofit sector. I want to make a difference for people. There are always going to be disasters that leave people with nothing, but nonprofits help to lessen the blow of even the most tragic incidents. It has been an eye opening adventure for me. I have talked to people that have lost their belongings, homes and even family members. Some of these people have no one they can turn to. It is hard to imagine that this is a reality for so many people. But I think the first step to making a change is accepting that this is reality.

The Difficulties with a Client Based Job

I have had more trouble than usual today trying to get through to clients. It becomes very frustrating because they are emotional and upset, as anybody would be after a disaster, and sometimes that makes it hard to ask the tough the questions and get the information we need. We do offer rental assistance for certain clients on a case-by-case basis. However, we have to get documentation on how much their last rent was, how much they can put towards the new rent, the new rent per month, a signed lease and a landlord verification. We ask that the client obtains all of this and then send it to us because we want them to be very active in their recovery. We really want our clients to be motivated to do their best at rebuilding their life after the disaster. Many of the clients are still overwhelmed and scared and this makes it hard to get some of the information. You have to be extremely sensitive to their situation, but you also have to be able to get the information you need to help them. Sometimes this requires calling everyday and asking them the same questions until it really sinks in that we can't offer assistance without this information. I think it is so difficult for the client to have to do so much additional work when they have lost their home, belongings and somtimes even family members, but we have to do it like this to make sure that they took an active role in their recovery.

What Red Cross has Taught Me

I think that this internship has prepared me in many ways for a career in the nonprofit sector. I have gotten to learn a lot about dealing with disaster clients and how to deal with people who are at one of the lowest points in their life. It can be difficult, but I think that this is something I want to continue to do. I enjoy making a difference in a client's life and being there for them when they have no one else. I have also learned a lot about how a nonprofit operates and how volunteers interact with paid staff to create a unique environment. I have also seen many people go above and beyond what is expected of them to get the job done right and I think this is especially important in nonprofits. I have also gotten to see how the budgeting and financial processes work in a nonprofit. I get to see how we make money by doing first aid, cpr and other similar classes and also how we give out money by being a client caseworker. I have also learned a lot about responsibility because client's depend on me to be reliable and give them information they can count on. I have to make sure that my references are up to date and that I am doing all that I can to make a client's life easier. I certainly think this will help me to be successful in a nonprofit in the future.

Making Casework Easier

One of my fellow caseworkers is compiling a manuel that all the caseworkers can reference for how to fill out all the different forms and advice on speaking to clients. I think this is so wonderful because it can get really confusing, especially when your a new caseworker. We have forms to fill out for all the different kinds of assistance we offer and it can get intimidating because you don't want to mess up on something that has to do with finances for our clients. I hope this will help alleviate some of the stress from the supervisors who have to train all of the new volunteers. I think this will really help everyone out. There is a lot of work that goes into being a caseworker and it will be nice to have something to refer to when we are unsure of how to do something. However, in any job that deals with clients, there is never one way of doing something. There often isn't a uniform answer or response we can offer for all cases. We have to go on a case-by-case basis and react in a way that best suits that specific client.

The Pros and Cons of a Volunteer Based Organization

I have mentioned on here before that Red Cross is made up of mostly volunteers. I think it is close to 97% volunteers and this has some really great benefits for the organization. One of them is that the people who work there really want to be there. If you aren't getting paid, then you have to truly be passionate about it to be spending your time there. Another benefit is that the organization can spend money on the services they provide.

However, there are some drawbacks to having volunteers run an organization. A lot of the people come in whenever they can, which isn't the same as having a regular work schedule. It is harder to catch people at a time when they are available. This also makes it hard to fix mistakes that happen in the office because often that person is not in the office to consult with. I know this also creates stress for the staff because they have to deal with so many different people.

Easy Day

This is going to be a really easy day at Red Cross. I finished everything I needed to do within the first hour of getting here. Sometimes we get pretty slow with the contracts. It takes me about 10 minutes to do each one and some days we only get three or four. I wish there was more for me to do, but I can't really help that. I think that everyone is so busy here that it takes more time to show someone else how to do something than to just do it themselves. One of my supervisor's told me that this is why they don't have that many interns here because it takes so long to train someone how to do the job and then interns are only here for such a short time. If an intern is only going to be here for a few months, then by the time that they learn how to do everything they will be ready to leave.
We do have internet courses that help take some of the training pressure off of the staff, but even after you complete those courses it still takes of a lot of time and questions to actually get it right. There are so many different programs that we use to handle the cases and contracts that it takes a while to get the hang of everything. It is especially difficult in casework because you are dealing with people, so there is no standard way to do everything. Every case is different and has a unique set of challenges and the only way to get better at it is to really study the cases and get to know the clients.

What I love about Red Cross

First of all, I love any nonprofit that devotes so much time, energy and money to helping so many people, but Red Cross really goes above and beyond to help out. Some ways Red Cross helps people are really simple, like contacting someone's relative in the army and giving them a message, and other ways are little more complicated, like helping someone recover after a disaster takes place. We all work really hard at all of these things to make it work. A lot of the people at Red Cross are volunteers and they devote so many hours each week to helping make all these services possible. It amazes me that so many people want to volunteer their time to help out. A lot of the tasks seem daunting and draining, but people still want to do them without pay. I think it's really great that so many amazing people exist that don't need to be receiving a paycheck to do help out.

New Responsibilities

I have some new responsibilities as a supervisor at Red Cross. I am really honored that they trust me enough to let me handle more details of the cases. However, this has also made me realize how far behind we have gotten this summer due to the massive amounts of cases and the lack of volunteers. There were mistakes that were made when the cases were entered, sometimes over a month ago, and we aren't noticing them until we go to close them out. As one of the people who now closes out the cases, I have to go back and fix the mistakes before I can actually close them. I think this has been really helpful for me to see how a mistake at the beginning of the case greatly affects the person who ends up working on it later on. I have made mistakes in the past with cases, but because I wasn't the one closing out all the cases, I didn't pay too much attention to really small errors. Now, I know the importance of fixing mistakes as you go, instead of waiting until the end and letting them all pile up. I think this will really help to save time in the future and allow me to be a better caseworker.

Plan for the Future

I have been thinking about what I want to do after I get my master's a lot lately. I only have a year left until I'm done and I'm a little bit scared because I still don't know what I want my career to be. I really enjoy working for a nonprofit like Red Cross, but I don't know if that will be a realistic option for a job, especially in this economy. I know a lot of the nonprofits have been hurting and I don't know how easy it will be to find on that is hiring. I think I need to start looking into a new internship for the fall. I really want to stay in the nonprofit sector, but I would also really like to have a paid internship. I am pretty sure that most of the nonprofit ones are not paid.

I would also really like to do something with a nonprofit that helps children, especially children that are economically disadvantaged. I feel really strongly that all children should get fair chance at a good education and be able to have great opportunities for the future.

Managing Cases

I was finally able to get caught up on all the cases. We haven't had any big disasters in the last few weeks. Before that we had several huge fires that destroyed several apartment units. We get extremely busy when this happens because we have to assist all of those clients at the same time. Once we finish assisting the client, you would think our work would be done, but it's not. We have to check all of the financial aspects of the case and close it out. We had a stack of probably 50 that needed to be closed and some of them were from almost a month ago. I finally finished closing all of them today. I think this will really help get us back on track and be able to focus on the clients that we currently have. I hope this will alleviate some of the stress in the office and take care of some of the backlog that generated while I was gone.

I have still been getting many calls from people asking for services that we don't provide. I have had several calls recently for help with transportation, but the only kind of transportation we offer is for domestic violence victims. The call I got today was from a woman who wanted to fly out of state to see her dying mother. I hate to have to tell these people no, but we just don't have the resources to help them out.

Overloaded with Cases

I worked in client casework today at Red Cross. We are so overloaded with cases that it takes all week just to get through them once. It's also hard to get ahold of clients because all of them have just been through a fire and money of them have lost their phones. This makes them unreliable to get ahold of and it's easy to spend all day trying to get ahold of clients. We have been getting so many new cases each week that we haven't been able to update all the cases as often as we would like to. This makes some of the clients angry because they are already overwhelmed from the disaster and they expect us to walk them through everything after that. I had one client the other week that was furious with Red Cross because she expected us to call her everyday. It's impossible to give that kind of attention to each client when most of the caseworkers are interns or volunteers. We do try really hard to help each client through this difficult time, but some of them have really unrealistic expectations of Red Cross and then they get angry when we don't live up to those expectations. It's a tough job, but someone has to do it.

Back to Work

Today was my first day back after a week off. I thought there was going to be a ton of work for me to do, but I think everyone chipped in while I was gone and helped out with the work load. I did have to do about 10 contracts which is a lot compared to what I normally have. I usually get about three or four a day. I hope the rest of the week goes this smoothly.

I have been getting a little bit frustrated doing the contracts because clients will change the date for their class several times. Each time they change it I have to generate the new contract. It doesn't take that much time, but it would be easier if they made sure the date was doable before calling us. However, this is one of the ways that Red Cross generates money and that enables us to be able to help so many people. I think some people assume that the classes would be free because so many of the services at Red Cross are. But we have to make money some way to support all the services we offer.

Home Sweet Home

I am finally home after a very long week in Florida. It feels really good to finally be able to sleep in my own bed and be back where everything is familiar. I am sad about leaving my family. I don't get to see them that often and it was so good to be able to spend the week with them, even though it was under horrible circumstances.

I will finally get back to my internship after being away for a week. We have been extremely busy at Red Cross lately, so I know that this was a bad time to take off. I am expecting to have a lot of work when I get there tomorrow. I hope it's not too much work though because I feel really drained after this week.

I hope all my family is doing okay. I will really miss them.

What Most People Don't Know About Red Cross

I have been at Red Cross for about 7 months now and I was amazed when I first started at how many services Red Cross provides. They help out in so many unique ways that many people don't even know about. Red Cross gives out so much money to help families that have just been through a disaster, but they also offer rental assistance to many of those same families. A lot of the families we help do not have insurance and have to start from stratch with a new apartment and pay all new deposits. That can really add up when you also have to replace all of your belongings. Red Cross really tries to do all that they can to help families get back on their feet after a disaster. They also offer mental health counseling to help people get through the emotional aspect of a disaster. I think it's great that Red Cross offers so many services, but I think it's sad that very few people know about them. I think more people would donate money if they knew about the efforts that Red Cross makes to help so many local communities.

Stuck in Florida

My grandfather passed away early this morning. I am going to be here until Saturday night because of the funeral service. I know that this is for the best because my whole family was waiting for something to happen. This experience really does make me feel like I can relate better to the people I work with at Red Cross. Many of them have lost a family member and now I see how much stress follows that. There are so many arrangements that have to be made and that must be extremely difficult when you don't even have a home. I can see how my whole family is struggling to get through everything and I can't imagine having to deal with this on top of losing your home.

Bad Day

I got really bad news this week. My granddad got really sick and is going to die. I had to fly out to Florida today and don't know when I will get back. He is in the hospice wing of the hospital right now and we don't know when he is going to pass away, but it will probably be in the next few days. It is really good to see all my family, but I wish it was under better circumstances. It's really hard to be here right now.
Since I don't know when I will be able to go back to my internship, I may have to blog about some past experiences at Red Cross. Lately, I have had a few cases where a family member has died in the fire. It's really sad because a lot of times it takes a while to find the body and the family doesn't know if someone has died or not. I had a case last week where the son was missing since the fire. They later found out that he had died. It was hard enough for me to deal with the grief from those cases and I didn't even know the people, but it is infinitely harder to see a family member slowly pass away.

Supervisor

Today I got to become a casework supervisor. It doesn't really mean what becoming a typical supervisor means. I don't actually supervise other people, but I do get access to more information on the cases and I can do more things. I am do more with the financial aspects of the cases. I can deduct money from accounts and suspend cards for improper use. I can also close out cases now. I think it's really great that they trust me enough to give me more responsibilities. It's nice to know that my hardwork here doesn't go unnoticed.
We have been extremely busy this summer with cases. We have had several large apartment fires and that destroyed many units and displaced a ton of families. It's nice to be able to do more now since we are all so busy right now. I think we are doing almost twice as many cases as we were before the summer. It's always kind of sad when we get really busy because that means that so many families are without a home. Hopefully things slow down soon.

A Typical Dilemma

I often recieve heartbreaking phone calls from people who are in desperate need of help while I'm at Red Cross. It is so hard to tell someone you can't help when you know they have no one else to help them. I still remember the first week I started working here, when an older man sent us a letter explaining the massive debt he was in due to the fire in his mobile home. He was severely injured in the fire and disability was his only source of income. He had no family and was in his late 80's. His mobile home had burned down in the fire and he was currently living in an abandoned camper. He had no electricity or running water. He couldn't pay the hospital bills from his injury in the fire. He was scared and worried for his life.

It is so hard to hear these stories, but they are pretty regular when working as a caseworker at Red Cross. You have to be able to tell someone no I'm sorry we can't help you anymore, even though you want to more than anything. I had another call today from a man in a similar situation that we were not able to help. It makes you feel really grateful to have family and friends to fall back on in the event of a disaster. Some of these people are all alone and have no one to help them when times get tough. I just try to think of all the people we are able to help when this happens. However, it really never gets easier having to tell someone no you can't help.

The Other Thing I Do at Red Cross

In my last post I explained what I do as a disaster caseworker, but I also work in a different department half of the time. I help with the corporate contracts that Red Cross does. Red Cross offers First Aid, CPR and various other safety courses. Companies can either have a Red Cross instructor come out and teach the course or they can choose to have a member of their staff become an Authorized Provider. An Authorized Provider can teach others the same classes. I probably will write about this area less because, as you can see, it's a little bit boring to talk about.

However, it is kind of interesting to see how many different services Red Cross provides. It's a huge organization that helps people in so many ways. I think I should also point out that Red Cross wouldn't exist without the help of volunteers. I believe Red Cross is made up of 97% volunteers, which is really amazing. People work really hard without getting paid and it's really amazing to see. I have been here since January and I don't want to leave. It's great to be at an organization that really wants to help people.

What it means to intern at Red Cross

Hi Everyone! This is my first post, so I think this is a good opportunity to explain what I do at Red Cross. I work in two different departments, but I have worked the longest in Disaster Casework. A lot of people don't really know about the services Red Cross provides. I work at the Grand Canyon Chapter, so we mostly deal with local disasters, not the large international ones we all associated Red Cross with. The most common type of disaster we deal with are home and apartment fires. Once someone has a fire, a Disaster Action Team member will come out to the scene and gather information on the family, give them a card with money on it for immediate needs and then bring all the information back to Red Cross.

This is really where I come in. I monitor the accounts and speak with the disaster clients regularly (notice we call them clients, not victims). Caseworkers, like myself, try to help clients on their road to recovery by offering them referrals for other organizations that can help and giving them someone to talk to about their plans for the future. We also offer rental assistance to families that need a little extra help getting back on their feet.

It's not always an easy job though. We deal with people during the worst moments in their lives. They are often in shock and scared and some have lost family members in the disaster. However, most of the clients are extremely grateful for the help Red Cross has given them and that makes it a little bit easier to keep going on.