Annalise and I started our Independent Living Classes on the 5th at one of the youth housing programs we work with. We have about 5-10 youth that come each week. We have talked about what Independent Living Classes will be about, Nutrition, "What's Next" (after high school) and College 101, in addition to cooking Italian food. We have decided to make it International Year, and have a genre of cooking for each month. We made homemade pizza, chicken broccoli Alfredo spaghetti and baked chicken. YUM! Next month we are diving into.. American cuisine. (we thought we would ease the kids into easy food before we spring falafel on them)
We also got to deep clean the kitchen in the basement... which was both good... and bad. Final outcome good though! Posters to come!
It's nice to have finally started IL classes instead of just talking about it for months. The work load for the class is not too bad, we have several binders at the office in which we can pull worksheets or ideas from. I enjoy cooking each week and seeing the kids eat and socialize.
November has been busy with meetings and working with some youth... along with rescheduling and... not meeting with youth. I was definitely warned about kids cancelling meetings and not showing up, but it is kind of disheartening knowing that I can help and support someone and not getting any take. I understand the issue of having one more social services person to talk to, but my role is more of a support and communicator for the youth. Bums me out that I work with 8 kids technically, but only meet with 4 consistently.
I have gotten into the groove of working in the Department of Human Services. Coming into the office, checking e-mail, attending meetings and documenting are things I have down pat. At times, the down time can be hard to fill, besides planning for our next Independent Living class, or month.
More to come!
No comments:
Post a Comment