My internship has helped change lives for thirty years and their motto is “Be part of the change”. In a program setting, homeless people can come here to prepare themselves for a better future who choose growth and change. This internship has a few different help options on who can come into this program. The main two options that are offered here are a two week emergency shelter program and an extended ninety day emergency temporary shelter program.

This internship focuses much of its emphasis on strengthening the homeless individual through support program that they offer at the shelter which includes on sit groups and classes. They offers a handful of different programs that are an ongoing basis. Beginning with the department of Agriculture nutrition program, which has been certified from the University of California Riverside. This is a program that is devoted to improving the quality and provisions of food to these individuals. They also offer a twelve step recovery program, which has an on-site and outside meeting attendance required. This is a twelve step recovery program that has helped many people stop the use of alcohol and drugs. Another program they had was “Dress for success for all ages”. This program is designed to help these individuals transition from unemployment to working many challenges, from understanding corporate culture to handling personal finances, often without any support systems in place to help them navigate this difficult change. This program provides information that will help these individuals unfamiliar with the workplace continue to develop skills and advance in their careers. Another program they had was on positive correction techniques for dealing with daily stress and anger. This helps teach you on how managing stress is all about taking charge of your thoughts, emotions, schedule, and the way you deal with problems. This is not only a life skill that homeless individuals can learn but something that everyone can learn.

Homelessness is a problem all over the world. There may not be a cause to homelessness but there certainly are ways to help those out in need. Programs, initiatives, and support can only do so much, but this help is helping those get back on their feet. As we have learned through our class and statistics that homelessness is a large systematic problem rather than an individual problem. Shelters like my internship are perfect opportunities to help those that are trying to change their lives for the good. These shelters can only really help those who actually want the help, just like the twelve step program. I could tell through the few individuals at this shelter that they all wanted the help to change their lives. They had dedication and motivation in themselves to see a better future. As I have seen, these individuals have already improved their life since the style they used to live in. They have started the path to a better future.