Listening to everybody’s reports on their internship sites was definitely eye-opening for me. There were a couple things that stood out to me. First, many of the organizations were started by people who have been affected by hunger and homelessness themselves. Second, most of them said something along the lines of “A hand out, not a hand up”, meaning they were there for resources but it is up to people to use them. I found both of these things to be hopeful, because it means that people in charge of running organizations have first hand experience and a more accurate understanding of people’s needs. Another interesting commonality is the use of language. Most organizations refer to people as clients or youth to avoid labeling people immediately as something negative. This seems like a very humanizing practice, and it makes sense that people who have been in the same situation would know how important labels and language around this kind of thing is.

In my internship at Family Services I am going to request to move to a different area so I can have a little more exposure to people. I am able to talk to people where I am in the donation center but it’s less frequent. And talking to people is definitely the most enriching part of everyone’s experience.