Here is my last HELP of Ojai Community Bulletin write up, but not my last blog post!
As I reflect on my internship at the HELP of Ojai Community
Assistance Program (CAP) I think of how hard it is to leave this community. I
am forever grateful to everyone for the welcome I received and the
relationships that were built through this program. I have enjoyed working daily in the office as
a case manager, as well as the major projects of the Thanksgiving Boxes,
Holiday Adopt-A-Family Project and Ojai Food Project. You all have taught me many lessons I will take
with me and am sharing with you the three I feel are most important.
1. You cannot make decisions for anyone else. As clients came into the office to ask for
help, I quickly realized it was not my decision on what each one did or did not
do. It was not my role to take control
of their lives, but to assist and help as each one tried taking steps to
helping themselves. I helped fill out
the paperwork, but it’s the clients’ choice to mail the application and
comeback with follow-up paperwork. The
hardest part of this lesson came in advocating for clients in the medical field,
as I tried to bridge the gap between medical professionals and clients. Having to explain to the doctor why the plan
they laid out will not work for a homeless client, while at the same time
explaining to the client how they will have to be willing to do things
differently got frustrating when nobody wanted to compromise.
2. People can tell when you are being sincere. Whether I was assisting in handing out
lunches to our homeless clients or doing an intake for Adopt-A-Family, I
learned that to reach people you have to be sincere in your actions and
words. People can tell if you want to
actually hear how they are doing or if it just a formality that you go through
when someone sits down at the desk. It
was important for me to convey to every client that I was sincere in helping
them and their responses were good reminders for me to check my words and actions
while in their presence.
3. A community can lift you up. I have seen countless examples of this
community lifting each other up. In
grief I have seen people comforting and reassuring each other that they can
work through this together. During
Adopt-A-Family I had the pleasure in calling clients that were on the waiting
list because donors continued to come forward to help families in need during
the holiday season. I have answered too
many phone calls to count of friends calling to report on other friends because
they were concerned about them.
Thank you again for being a part of my experience and I hope
that our paths will cross soon!
