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CHAPTER 1

!"#$%&' ' Chapter One: The Human Services Internship; Getting the most from your experience What are your feelings and concerns as you begin your internship? I am excited about my internship. My internship interview turned into a job opportunity. I am looking forward to learning a new area of the human services field. The job I came from was more administrative. My new position is clinically focused, while managing youth cases. Therefore, in my internship, I am going to see what implementations are needed for the organization and what can be changed administratively in the internship program.

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What do you see as your primary learning interests and needs? I am interested in learning the clinical side of case management and working with service providers. Other students in the internship program are going for Social Work. This interests me because without the individuals out in the field an administrator does not have a job. Taking this position was for the benefit of my professional development. I believe you need to know the role each individual plays within an organization. This creates a sense of relation and understanding.

What do you see as your strengths and weaknesses? I am able to understand the human services organization and how it runs. Also, I know how to apply the wraparound process. My weakness is being vulnerable to such emotional and heart wrenching situations.

What are the issues that are more important to you as you plan your internship experience with your supervisor?

!"#$%&' ' I want my supervisor to be open-minded to my ideas and let me learn through trial and error. Starting with a new organization and learning the backgrounds and skills sets of the supervisors and the strengths and weaknesses of the organization is essential to my learning. By learning this, I will be able to brainstorm what changes can be made to the structure of the organization. Also, I could possibly indicate the areas that can be improved or polished.

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What aspects of your learning plan are you most excited about? I am excited about developing and implementing the curriculum for the internship program at CCPFC. Working with my supervisor to create a more refined and structured internship program and trainings is something I feel would be a large accomplishment at the end of my internship process.

What aspects do you believe will be most challenging? I think the most challenging aspect of my internship will be being able to balance work hours and internship hours. Time management will be key to separating my professional work from the time I am investing in my internship.

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CHAPTER 2

!"#$%&' ' Chapter Two: E-portfolio Questions and Answers: The Human Services Internship: Getting the most from your experience.

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What particular elements of agency context have you learned most about through your internship? The Camden County Partnership for Children operates under the NJ Childrens System of Care. CCPFC Care Managers work side by side with the Division of Child Protection and Permanency (DCPP), and also work with the Camden County Family Support Organization. Youth ChildFamily teams are based on building teams of support that involve formal or professional (service providers, FSO, DCPP, Probation, CMO) and informal (family members, neighbors, friends, spiritual leaders) resources. How would you describe your agencys context? The Camden County Partnership is a non-profit agency committed to assisting children and their families who are facing emotional, behavioral or mental challenges that have affected their psychological functioning at home, school or socially within their community. Utilizing the Wraparound model of support, CCPFC aims to empower families through the construction of a Child Family Support Team, provision of formal therapeutic services and access to positive community supports or outlets. The CCPFC uses the Wraparound process to best serve its families. The Wraparound process enables families to be equal partners in the service planning process with the belief that all children can grow, recover, improve, and become healthier (CCPFC, 2013, p.2). CCPFC is family focused and is respectful to family culture, values, strengths, and preferences (p.2).

!"#$%&' ' CCPFC focuses on providing services for behavioral and mental health support. It is our job to create child-family teams that support the youths individualized service plan and support the needs of the child and family. How has your view of agencies and their contexts changed since the beginning of your internship? Being an intern and an employ has allowed me to see both sides of the work at hand. As a Care Manager, your job is solely based on communication, outreach, and assessment. With the building of child-family teams, it is necessary for a Care Manager to solely focus on mental and

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behavioral health needs and assessing what is necessary for the youth. All other parties involved have to do with a youths case, but it is vital that a Care Manager focuses on services and behavioral health.

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CHAPTER 3

!"#$%&' ' Chapter Three: The Human Services Internship; Getting the most from your experience.

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Human service employees have a strong interest in hiring workers who have knowledge of ethical standards, who have developed ethical sensitivity, and who can be counted on to handle ethical dilemmas in a professional manner. Write a narrative regarding a particular ethical issue that you identified and acted upon during one of your fieldwork experiences. Point out the specific insights and actions on your part that reflect your ethical knowledge, sensitivity, and behavior. Since I am employed at my internship site, I personally do not have any issues with the interns since they are colleagues and we work well as a team. All of us bring something different to the table and always delegate tasks and establish a game plan. We all practice and model professionalism and represent Camden County Partnership for Children. Therefore, I will reflect on a matter that took place with one of my out-of-home placements with one of my youth on my caseload. My youth is placed is developmentally disabled and suffers from autism. He is currently in an out-of-home placement. As his Care Manager is it my job to speak with him at least once a month to hear about his experiences and progress. Outside of speaking with my youth, I am to speak with his parents at least twice a month to hear about his childs progress and home visits. Throughout numerous conversations, Dad was reporting that his son kept telling him staff was mishandling him, taking things from him, gripping him up, and hurting him. His son is one to make up stories to take the focus off of what he has done, but there were numerous stories reported. My youth complained about shoulder pain from being retrained by a staff member for over a month. Therefore as his Care Manager, I took legal action.

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I submitted a report to NJ Abuse about the out-of-home organization. An assessment was completed and it turned out that the staff member righteously was at fault. There was a statement made by a staff bystander, the staff at fault, and my youth. He wound up being fired and other actions took place. I was an advocate for my youth and his family. During his treatment meeting, the out-of-home placement treatment team was not happy with my report and did not appreciate my actions. I would not change the actions I took as a state mandated reporter. I learned that it is okay to feel uncomfortable with being the bad guy in the room in order to do the right thing. I am glad I had this case investigated, stuck to my professional role, and was able to advocate for my youth and properly represent my organization.

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CHAPTER 4

!"#$%&' ' Chapter Four: The Human Services Internship; Getting the most from your experience. From your internship, what have you learned about what you want and need in your supervisory relationship? While working with my Field Supervisor, I realized I want a Supervisor who is

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interested in my goals and my ambitions. A Supervisor who will coach me through the unknown process that a young professional hasnt been through is essential in my development. My previous and current Supervisor like me to take my ideas and apply them to the workplace and use trial and error. If I fail, my Supervisor speaks with me about why I think it did not work and what could have been done differently. I need someone who is going to allow me to fail and ask questions. I need someone who is open to new ideas and will scaffold things in order for me to learn. Trust is also a big trait that is necessary in a relationship with my Supervisor. I know I do not want to be micromanaged. I look for a leader who will coach me in all the things I do and allow me to fail. Have you handled your responsibilities within the role in terms of being an active and open participant in the process? My Supervisor has allowed me to create my own role. She feels this is necessary when it comes to Administration. She expressed that when a new position is created or someone finds a need, it needs to be pitched to the Board of Directors and the COO. Therefore, she allowed me to create my own responsibilities, projects, and job description. Not only was this good practice for becoming an administrator, it also helped me target what type of position I would look for and what it would consist of based on my interests.

What particular challenges have you encountered in your supervision, and how have you

!"#$%&' ' handled them? I cant say I have faced many challenges with my current Supervisor. The most I can say is coordination of schedules. Since I was offered a job in my internship meeting, it is tough to

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coordinate around my work schedule and my Supervisors schedule. Since we found this to be a problem we set aside an hour before each Thursday class to go over my progress, hours, and to talk about any concerns, etc. How would you like to grow in your skills to use supervision effectively? I would like to learn more about how organizations are funded and how positions are created. Understanding why an organization runs the way it does lies heavily in funding. Therefore, learning about funders and grants is essential to understanding the dynamics of a program. Also, learning other peoples communication styles is beneficial when being a leader. Successful communication is key to a positive environment. Communication styles are a huge factor in Supervisor-employee relationships. Being more aware of communication styles can help a leader communicate in the appropriate way to get things done efficiently. Based on your internship supervisory experience, what do you anticipate that you will need in a supervisor when you enter your first professional job? I need a supervisor who engages with their employees as a team. You can play a baseball game without a pitcher. A supervisor should be the center person who is always available for questions and ideas. One who always supports and backs up their employees. I know I will need someone who constructively criticizes my ideas and questions what I do in a positive manner. One who makes me think and helps me excel toward my goals. I will need someone who shares the same passion and vision as me and looks at their job as a passion and not work.

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CHAPTER 5

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Chapter 5: IPM Write-up: An Administrative Services situation: Camden County Partnership for Children 1. Gathering Objective Data from Concrete Experience At the beginning of my internship it was established that there needed to be a developed framework for the program and a ten-week curriculum. The internship team agreed upon collaborating with one another to gather information for each week. Topics were not established because we wanted to survey the girls based on their areas of interests and what topics they would like to cover. The first week was determined to be a Get to Know You workshop with icebreakers and activities. Over the course of the internship, I volunteered to make a Weebly website that the team and my Supervisor would have access to. This would act as a workspace and sharing tool for the interns. 2. Reflecting Surveying the girls worked out well and helped us establish topics that were not thought of previous to administering surveys. As an internship group, many of the students whom I worked with were not very interested in the structure of the internship program and/or participating in curriculum development. This made it hard to increase the stability of the internship program. There was a lack of communication amongst team members and their disinterest was prevalent in conversation. 3. Identifying Relevant Theory and Knowledge With my past experiences and professional development opportunities, I have developed and implemented programs on Rutgers-Camden campus. Through these experiences I was able to learn to manage staff and develop curriculum best suited for a specific audience. I have background in creating and presenting workshops.

!"#$%&' ' 4. Examining Dissonance I was hoping that the other interns with their knowledge base and clinical background would

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provide material and input on the clinical topics that were being discussed with the girls group. Although there was a lack of interest in curriculum and input in lessons, I was able to educate myself on these topics and really gather information and knowledge on clinical topics. The conflict between understanding each interns area of study was observable in the delivery of lessons. 5. Articulating Learning The lack of structure and Supervisor involvement was noticeable. Coming in as a new intern and employee, I did not feel comfortable taking the role as a managerial figure. Some of the other interns are also employees, some of which have been employed there for over five years. I did not want to cross boundaries or create conflict amongst some of the other employees and interns who have been with CCPFC for a while now. '

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CHAPTER 6

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Chapter 6: Communicating With Clients; The Human Services Internship: Getting the Most from Your Experience Discuss your experience thus far in working with individuals, families, groups and communities. Which of these levels of intervention have you had the most experience with? As a young professional, I was able to develop a network of passionate and resourceful leaders during my undergraduate career at Rutgers-Camden. I became involved with a pre-college pilot program on campus and worked two days per week in Camden City. This program was run through the office of Civic Engagement. I worked closely with the Director of Public School Partnerships, Nyeema Watson, and The Associate Chancellor for Strategic Planning and Civic Engagement, Andrew Seligsohn. By showing initiative and verbalizing the need for more responsibility, I met JarDaine Brown, Program Coordinator, for a new program that was being launched. As time went on, I pursued a mentor-mentee relationship with JarDaine. I attended important planning meetings and spent many hours brainstorming with Mr. Brown. By doing this, I reached the position of Program Assistant. Soon after the launch of the Ignite program, JarDaine left and I filled in until full-time staff had been hired. Through my accomplishments and initiative, I was awarded the 2012 Inaugural Chancellors Award for Civic Engagement. After completing my undergraduate degree, JarDaine hired me to help launch a new college access program on campus called The Hill Family Center for College Access (HFCCA). Currently, I am working as a Care Manager for Camden County Partnership for Children. We serve youth who are referred through the Childrens System of Care. In all these experiences, I have worked with groups in numerous ways. Ive worked with

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students from elementary school age to undergraduate students. I am also highly involved with the Camden community and the Rutgers Community. I would work with families to help educate them on the opportunities they had and the programs that were offered in the community in order to fit their needs. If you were employed by your in your internship organization, how might you expand your work to encompass all four levels of intervention? My internship interview turned into a job opportunity. Therefore, I am working as an intern and as a Care Manager for my organization. I will answer this question in terms of changing the internship program. Currently we work with a lot of students who are pursuing their LCSW and MSW. We would benefit from having one person whom oversees the interns, an Internship Coordinator. Recruiting students, managing meetings, tracking hours, and overseeing programming is essential. Each one of us interns have a different Supervisor and are not able to unite as a group unless it is during Girls L.I.F.E Skills Group. Creating a structured and outlined internship program would be beneficial to the interns and CCPFC as a whole. The implementation of family meet and greets, prep-meetings, internship meetings, reflection, evaluation, and tracking is definitely a need of our organization. We would be able to develop more relationships with a number of institutions and our interns would gain more experience through their internship experience. Assess you abilities in each of these levels of intervention, identifying your strengths as well as areas that need improvement.

!"#$%&' ' Group: I am self-aware and able to adapt to diverse groups and settings. My communication skills in a group setting are structured and polished. I am able to identify learning and communication styles. I am an active listener.

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Individual: I am able to develop positive relationships, gain trust, and collaborate appropriately with my youth. I am able to give my youth a voice and listen to their perspectives and concerns. I could improve on engaging the youth a bit more in face-to-face meetings. Families: I am an advocate for my families. I am resourceful, organized, and caring. I show compassion and openness when communicating. An improvement may be to better understand more cultures and their backgrounds. My experiences have only been with the Spanish and African American population. Communities: I am driven to connect families and youth to their community resources. I always network and reach out to organizations to create partnerships and collaborate. I believe education is the foundation to everything, so I am able to get school systems and institutions involved in my service plans. What observations do you make about how your methods and skills in communicating have evolved over the course of your education? I have learned to be able to identify my communication style and others. This was very helpful when running meetings and trainings. Understanding communication styles is essential to meeting a collaborative end goal. I have also become an active listener. In my undergraduate years, I would also speak before someone was finished because I was afraid of losing my thought or addressing an issue. Now, I take notes about the topics and situations that I wanted to address

!"#$%&' ' and spark a conversation after the initial conversation has taken place. As you enter the human service profession, which area(s), of intervention is (are) most interesting or satisfying to you and why?

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I am dedicated and interested in working in a group setting and with community partners. In my experiences at Rutgers, we were always collaborating and innovating new ideas to implement on campus. I enjoyed networking and meeting new people who shared my passion each day. Understanding the politics and structure of a University setting is challenging and I feel I have a good foundation to move forward with. I enjoyed training and speaking to large groups of individuals. I know I want to be a motivational speaker, professor, or workshop facilitator in the next few years after graduation. Connecting low socio-economic status individuals in Camden City to the necessary resources they need fulfills part of my passion to help people. Having them identify that they are capable and worthy of succeeding and receiving and education is a feeling like no other.

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CHAPTER 7

!"#$%&' ' Chapter Seven: Cultural Differences The Human Service Internship; Getting the Most of Your Experience What cultural differences have you encountered in your internship?

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Although it is not considered a cultural difference, it is considered a difference in sexual orientation. At my internship site/workplace, there are female individuals who are involved in same sex relationships. My Supervisor is married and adopted her daughter with her wife. Another intern in our group just was recently engaged to her partner. During our group sessions and the teaching of self-image and sexuality, one of our youth decided to come out to the group. It is refreshing to see such confidence amongst these women in these relationships. It exposes me to new relationships, especially those couples that are pursuing same sex marriage and adoption.

What insights have you gained into those of the clients with whom you have worked? I have learned a lot about the process of one coming out to friends and family members. It was comforting to see these women so confident about their choices. Each of them expressed what it was like growing up and hiding from the truth and how they were unable to be who they really are as a person. Now they are engaged or married and have weaned out those who have not accepted them at individuals.

What have been your greatest cultural challenges and how have you dealt with them? I cannot define any cultural challenges within my internship process. Understanding and learning about the lives of those in same-sex relationships has really allowed me to learn that education and understanding are the best tools to success and team development.

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What are your goals as you continue to develop your skills in working with diverse groups? Immersing myself in different cultural groups is essential. This will create a sense of understanding and acceptance. Being aware of differences and educating myself on different cultural practices and beliefs will help develop successful professional relationships.

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CHAPTER 8

!"#$%&' ' Chapter Eight: The Human Services Internship; Getting the Most from Your Experience Submit some samples of your professional writing and reporting related to clients and administrative purposes and an oral report as well. What do you see are your strengths and weaknesses in written and oral reporting state specific goals for improvement and strategies for accomplishing those goals? ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' '

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Strengths I am very comfortable in front of an audience. I am able to create a good rapport with them and judge their interests and focus of the topic being presented. This way I am able to adjust the information being presented to their learning style and areas of interest. I know how to stick to an agenda and time frame and adjust curriculum if necessary. When a topic is being deeply discussed and goes over the time that was allotted I am able to adjust fairly well, without limiting the information being presented. I also know how to write a speaking outline, which helps me organize my thoughts and topics. I am able to build hands-on group activities and icebreakers into each workshop that is presented. I am also well versed in technology and am able to make the workshop interactive and engaging. Weaknesses I believe I need to work on writing e-mails in a sense of focusing on tone and how one may perceive the message. I have been able to master the format of an e-mail. For example, incorporating day, time, contact information, and making sure all bases are covered before

!"#$%&' ' sending out an e-mail. This eliminates the amount of e-mails that are sent and the timing of correspondence.

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CHAPTER 9

!"#$%&' ' Chapter Nine: The Human Services Internship; Getting the Most from Your Experience

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Describe what this internship has taught you about your sources of stress, your ways of handling stress, and your ways of taking care of yourself. You might consider the following questions: What have you observed about the types of situations that cause stress (external stressors)? A lot of external stressors come from overload of work, maintaining relationships, and situations, challenges, difficulties, and expectations that we encounter daily. Every day we use different coping skills to deal with external stressors. What have you learned about how to reduce and manage these stressors effectively? First, I like to identify my stressors and rate them from greatest to least and tackle each one at a time. Reminding myself that I am not able to control everything, but my feelings and reactions allows me to appropriately address my issues. I set a reminder for 12pm in my phone calendar that says how are you feeling today? in order redirect my mood and evaluate how my day is going and how I am coping with internal and external stressors. This allows me to reflect and document my feelings every day and keep focused on my inner-self. What particular pitfalls are you learning to avoid as you deal with stress in your life? I am trying to learn that I cannot always be in control and that everything cant be solved right away. I am a perfectionist, so this sometimes interferes with deadlines and ways of doing things. I am practicing more patience and letting smaller things go that I would usually direct a lot of my focus toward. What have you learned about maintaining healthy boundaries between your professional life and your personal life?

!"#$%&' ' I learned there is a difference between your friends and your work friends. You are able to

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socialize with your work friends and form relationships about a shared passion and interest, but nothing past that. Also, leaving personal relationships out of your work is ethical and professional. Bringing personal problems and issues to work shouldnt be done, but if something is going to interfere with performance, having an open and honest conversation with ones Supervisor is necessary. What have you learned about staying safe in the work place? Attending as many trainings and meetings as possible is essential. Educating oneself on how to deal with specific issues and circumstances is beneficial.

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CHAPTER 10

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Chapter Ten: The Human Services Internship; Getting the Most from Your Experience

As your internship ends, what do you most appreciate about your internship experience? What regrets do you have about your internship? What are your feelings, wants and needs as you leave your internship? What do you feel you need to do for your continued personal and professional growth? My internship experience has been eye opening to mental and behavioral health issues and the clinical dynamic of human service organizations. This experience has provided me with a full-time job with benefits and the exposure to a different sphere of human services. I appreciate all of the learning and networking and opportunities this experience has provided me with and the professional development opportunities that I am exposed to every day. My internship interview turned into a job opportunity, which I am extremely grateful. Although, my interview turned into a job, beginning a new position and an internship was a bit overwhelming. Learning my role as a Care Manager and as an intern at the same time sometimes takes away from the time that I could spend on projects and helping develop projects and curriculum. I wasnt able to focus as much on my role as an intern as I intended because I was so adamant focused on proving myself to my Supervisor, making a good first impression, and fulfilling my role to its entirety. I am focused on still contributing to the internship program at Camden County Partnership for Children once my internship is completed. I will be able to dedicate more time to the internship program and help further develop the structure and curriculum. Understanding

!"#$%&' ' more of the NJs System of Care, CCPFCs role and The Division of Child Protection and Permanency will definitely be beneficial in the development as a Care Manager.

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CHAPTER 11

!"#$%&' ' Chapter Eleven: The Human Services Internship; Getting the Most from Your Experience Career goals and my plan for achieving them:

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What are your long and short-term career goals as your internship ends? What do you feel you need to learn in order to accomplish your goals? What would you like to do professionally five or ten years from today? What are your next steps as you continue to pursue your personal and professional growth? How will you accomplish these steps? What is your immediate timeline for the completion of various steps in this process? As a new employee at CCPFC, it would like to complete the two assessments I need to undergo about the wraparound process in order to work from home and become a team lead. I also plan to connect with my mentor at my community college I graduated from in order to get the process started with applying as an adjunct. I would like to be teaching at least two courses come the summer time. I want to work in higher education as a professor and/or Director of a program. I would like to travel and facilitate workshops. Eventually, I would like to become a motivational speaker and start programming for foster children. I believe networking is the best way to achieve goals. Any provided opportunity should be explored. Attending trainings and workshops in higher education settings and volunteering is essential in obtaining stature in the higher education setting. I will continue to use my network of individuals I worked with at Rutgers-Camden for many years to help me get connected to professional and personal growth opportunities. From working on campus and in the Chancellors office, I was surrounded by many educated and successful individuals who have large ranges of networks and connections. Shadowing them in

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their endeavors and attending events this summer is part of my plan to become more integrated in the higher education setting.