Brilee Hendon

This week at the center was my last time volunteering! It was a fairly busy day, with multiple families coming in to receive therapy or undergo an investigation. While I did not have any tasks to complete and simply worked at the front desk, it brought me much joy to have helped the families during my time at the center. Overall, I learned the true meaning of being empathic toward families in abusive situations. These families don't need sympathy; they need resources to ask questions and get their children the help they need to thrive, and the center helps them do just that!

Today was a peaceful day at the center, with many new people coming into the center. While I was there, I sat at the front desk and helped people with the new check-in system and alerted the counselors that their patient had arrived. Having been at the center all semester, I typically see the same people come in, but today a boy came in who had been in the center before. He seemed to be with his caretaker, whom I presumed to be his grandmother. This got me thinking about how children who live with grandparents or a grandparent have the opportunity for resilience, while also facing difficulties. As I have learned in class, being raised by a grandparent can be vastly different from a two-parent household and may cause the child to have increased behavioral issues, or (as I researched) increased rates of anxiety. Additionally, I learned today that the parents of a child and how they go about conflict can impact the child heavily, as I heard a discussion with a therapist regarding how to resolve conflict between two parents. Overall, I am continuing to learn how a parent can drastically affect the child's development.

There was a lot going on around the CSC! During my time, I helped to grab fallen pinwheels after an event for Child Abuse Prevention Month! After helping in this way, I helped people as they came in and checked in with therapists and advocates to let them know that their clients had arrived. Today, I gain a deeper understanding of the emotional distress parents may be feeling when they bring a child into the center. Through a woman and her daughter coming to the center and experiencing the shock and sadness, my heart was increased for wanting to help in this area. Additionally, this experience displayed the stressor theory where A is the stressor event, B is the resources, C is the perception or my noticing the shock of the mother, and X is the outcome of the support they receive. I also noted that what the daughter was undergoing affected the mother, which aligns with the family being an interconnected system. All in all, I gained new insights into how abuse can impact not only the child but the entire family.

This week at the Children's Safety Center, I did not have any tasks to complete, but it was a busy day at the center, so I got to have more interaction with the people coming in. Today, there were multiple interviews, so each time someone came in, I went to find the interviewer and advocate for each family. One of the families that came in seemed to be a single-parent household with many children. In observing this family in the lobby, I saw that the older children took care of the younger children and the baby in their family. As I have been learning in class, theories such as the Family systems theory are clear in this scenario. Each family member is impacted by the events that occurred and in how they live, and then how they will grow up! The whole family is impacted by one another in one interconnected system. Overall, I saw the family systems theory clearly, and learned more about what the interview process looks like for new families that have come to the center for help!

During my time at the Children's Safety Center today, I primarily worked to organize new donated clothes and worked to put out more spring items in the shop area. This task took me about the entire time, but as I worked and looked at all of the different sizes of baby clothes, I noticed that many of the baby clothes have not been taken, as most of the people that have come into the center that I've seen are teenagers! Today I learned more about the development of children. I observed the sizing of their clothing and was amazed at how quickly our bodies grow when we are little!

During my time at the center, I worked to organize a new trash bag of clothes and welcomed people in. I began by working at the front desk, conversing with those in the lobby, and walking patients and investigators back to where they needed to go. During my time at the desk, I got to see two children put their fresh hand-prints on the wall and be walked thorugh the process of an investigation. Unlike my previous time at the center, there were multiple investigations at the center, so I got to learn what that looks like for different children. One man was a true investgator and then others were policemen. The healing process truly looks different for every child that comes into the center, and that is what is so beautiful and so amazing about the advocate's job and the work done at the CSC! Addtionally I got to put out new clothes in the store area for families in need of clothing for their children!

This week at the Children's Safety Center, I volunteered for my first official time! I started by refreshing myself with my responsibilities and then began working to organize the store area. I then moved to the front desk, welcoming people in. This week, I learned about the family dynamics of the children who came in. Each seemed to have a different home life, and it was evident in the ways they spoke to their children and interacted as they were meeting with their advocates. One example of this was a father and daughter who spoke very calmly to one another and seemed to have a close relationship, while a caregiver and a little boy seemed more passive with one another. Overall, this week I learned about the process of an advocate meeting with a child and caregiver for the first time, and learned about the different dynamics parents or caregivers may have with their children.

During my time at the Children's Safety Center, I was trained to be a volunteer. We sat down for an in-depth presentation about volunteer expectations, as well as learned about the center's history and purpose. We got to walk through what a day volunteering in the center will look like and look at files of children who have experienced abuse to gainan understanding of what those walking in have experienced. Overall, I learned what it means to volunteer at the center and that 90% of those coming to the center have experienced child abuse, and recognizing the vastness of abuse occurring in our community, and how we can help to support!

Good news shoe drive! I brought the max amount of shoes

I served in Panama distributing Water filters in people's homes for a collective total of 60 hours