My internship was at Redlands Family Services.  Their mission is to alleviate poverty, encourage self-sufficiency, and promote the dignity of all.  In my first progress report I mentioned that I was supposed to be working with case management.  However, my job consisted mainly of busy work at the front desk.  For example, I would make copies, information packets, flyers, stamp folders, alphabetize folders/name cards, and file documents.  I never actually got to case management.  I continued to do the little tasks that were busy work nobody actually wanted to do.  I think that the closest thing I did that involved case management was when one of the newest case managers wanted to show me how to input a new family into their system.  Using a particular database, she showed me what to look for in the new family’s file and where to submit it on the computer.  She explained to me that this was done for every person/family.  I assume that these are updated at least every year considering people have children or their conditions get better or worse.

Although I mostly did busy work while being at the front desk, I was also able to help clients sign in.  I also recorded on paper when people needed to get clothing.  When clients go to get clothing we have to write down their case number (assigned to them when they join Redlands Family Services), their ethnicity, what city they reside in, the number of people in their family, and the ages of each person in their family.  I actually don’t know why this is recorded instead of services like food and what not, but I think it is because the agency is a non-profit that receives funding from the government.

One thing that I noticed that Redlands Family Services was good at was that no matter what their client’s condition was, they were always willing to find a solution.  For example, a family came in looking to receive services from the agency.  They did not know how to go about receiving services so we called one of the case managers up to the front desk.  One of the things that Redlands Family Services requires in order to receive help is proof of income.  The family looking for help was a woman who did not speak English and her daughter who was about 15 years old.  The 15 year old explained that everything her dad receives is in cash so figuring out what kind of document to bring in as proof of income was hard to find.  However, the case manager was able to find out that she could bring in a phone bill and that would count as proof of insurance.  I found it fascinating that they would accept this.  I thought it was really cool that they helped this family in any way that they could.  I don’t think that many agencies would have taken the time or have had the patience to help a 15 year old find proof of insurance for her family.