My internship at a domestic violence shelter has been a great experience and I am very glad I got the opportunity to do it, but there are definitely some critiques of the organization I have found, along with the positive things going on.  The organization is broken into three sectors: legal, shelter, and administration.  During this semester, the administrative sector has been completely reconstructed, the shelter has flooded and needed to have most of the structure replaced, and the legal sector has lost employees.  Needless to say, it has been hectic.

There was a dire need for an Executive Director of the organization because there was no one really in charge.  There were two people leading the administration and a supervisor at the legal and shelter sectors, but there was not any staff at the top.  This was the first change to be made.  An Executive Director was brought in to fix some of the things going on in the organization.  The main concern was getting the budget back on track.  This has been accomplished very well and within a short couple months, she has gotten payroll on track and gotten more grants awarded to the organization.  She also has put an evaluation process into play which will really help the staff better understand what is expected of them.  I have a lot of faith that this position will really help in a variety of ways.  Without a leader, there is just so much disorganization.

The legal sector does great work and I am very proud of their part of the organization.  They help people who need to get restraining orders on their partner due to domestic violence.  They help anyone who comes into their office and don’t discriminate.  I had the least experience working with this sector other than helping with their data entry, but I think they are the most on track.  They have a system and it works, and so I don’t see why they would mess with that system.

The shelter sector is where I have spent most of my time.  This is also where I see the most problems.  The shelter is run very poorly and there is a lot of disorganization.  The staff doesn’t know what exactly is expected of them, and the supervisor of the staff is very disorganized herself.  The more educated staff and interns are not used well, and are asked to do things such as cleaning and laundry instead of completing tasks they are very capable of. Instead older, uneducated staff is put in charge of the main responsibilities.  Education is not the only factor into making a good employee, but it is very important as an advocate for victims of domestic violence.  There is a lot of victim blaming and criticizing.  I blame this on a lack of training and knowledge on these staff and supervisor’s part.

Overall, I do think the organization does do good work, but in my opinion the shelter sector has a lot of work to do.  The number one thing to be done is more training and education for the supervisor because with lack of an educated authority the whole structure falls apart.  After educating and training the supervisor, the other staff needs to be better trained.  The legal and administrative sectors seem to be on their way, and I believe they will be on track very soon.

For my internship I have been working at a non-profit domestic violence shelter.  I have been able to work with the shelter staff and victims of domestic violence and feel I have gotten an accurate portrayal of how the shelter works and runs.  The shelter requires a lot of structure and has very strict guidelines for the residents.  The daily schedule consists of a 6:00 AM wake up followed by a morning chore and classes beginning at 9 AM. Classes are from 9-2:30 with a 30 minute lunch break in between classes.  These classes are used to educate the residents on the history of domestic violence while also allowing them to elaborate on their own experiences.  There are also classes on parenting or job-finding skills.  The overall goal of the shelter is to repair the mental damage the abuse has caused and help them get back on their own so they can afford to provide themselves and their children a safe home.  After class the residents have 2 and a half hours to be “productive.” This could include apartment searching, job searching, getting court paper work done or something they need to have done before leaving the shelter.  The program is only 60 days and so the residents need to get back on their feet and ready to provide for themselves in this short amount of time.  2 months may seem like a long time, but when considering all of the things these women have to accomplish while also letting themselves heal, it is very difficult.  The staff is very strict about enforcing the rules of the shelter and once someone has 3 infractions of the house rules, they are exited from the program.  These rules provide structure and allow the women to become used to a routine.  The problem I see with the strict nature of the shelter is that the residents have a hard time opening up to the staff out of fear of being exited.  The staff all care greatly about the residents, but there is a shortage of staff and so there usually are not enough staff to allow a lot of advocacy for the clients.  The residents are welcome to come into the office for advocacy at any time, but with the stress in the office it sometimes doesn’t seem to be very welcoming.  There is usually a volunteer or intern at the shelter to provide advocacy to the clients when the staff is too overwhelmed with running the shelter and answering the hotline.  The residents end up feeling much more comfortable talking to these people rather than the manager or lead advocates because they have time to sit and listen.  Someone to listen is what these women need most of the time.  Overall the shelter is run very effectively.  There are of course some victims who end up leaving before the 60 days are over, but this is usually because they are unable or unwilling to comply with the strict guidelines.