Anna Gonzalez Compass House Practicum
I am Anna Gonzalez and I am a Junior Psychology Major, with a concentration in child clinical/counseling.
My Practicum will be done at the Compass House. The Compass House is a local "run-away" facility with children of all different backgrounds.
Their ages typically range from 11 years of age to about 17 years of age. This is the only housing facility in the
***Confidentiality is very important! In all my entries the children will be referred to by gender and a letter. I will not give ages for them unless I feel it is relevant and conversations that I have with the children will be shortened and made very brief in nature and if any conversation gave any very personal information, it will not be shared here.***
Tuesday, August 26, 2008 (1.5 hours): This day was the training session. Some other volunteers and myself met at the house with some staff at the Compass House to go through some basic training. This training session included: basics about the children who come to find shelter, policies, procedures, stories to give us ideas of what we would be dealing with, other small issues.
This day we were introduced to some of the children that were there and also given a tour of the house so that we could become familiar and comfortable with our surroundings.
Thursday, August 28, 2008 (5.5 hours): When I got there, I rang the bell to announce myself. At the training session I was assigned a mentor; someone who was full time staff in the house. I met my mentor and he gave me a run down. I was introduced to the kids as they came in. There were 6 children living there on this day; 1 boy and 5 girls. The first child I met was boy A. I talked to him, watched a movie with him and my mentor, and watched my mentor and him play video games and joked around with them. It was a very comfortable environment. The children left for an hour for “group”, which is basically like a group meeting/therapy.
While they were gone we started thinking about what we could make them for dinner. One girl did not go to group this day. Girl A was very hesitate about speaking to me when I met her. It is as if she had an attitude. With that being said, after maybe of half an hour of sitting quietly, she started conversing with me and having serious conversations with me about movies, her life, everything.
When the children returned, they were given lessons on STD’s and HIV and told how to use protection, by someone from a local clinic, more than likely someone from prevention focus. While they had their lesson, the staff and I cooked dinner. The children set the table and put the food out. At dinner, I was able to talk to and joke around with all the children. I found that one girl did not want to eat and did not want to interact with me. Girl B exhibited characteristics of a child with an eating disorder, which later that day I found out to be true.
After dinner, the children had to load the dish washer, clean up, take out the garbage and do various other chores. Then we all sat down in the living room and had a great laugh telling jokes, and funny experiences.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008(5 hours 25 min.): On this day, I did not get to interact with the children too much, because they have long therapy group sessions at the resource center. But, when they did come back, I had a lot of fun with them. First, I met the new boy, which I will call Boy B seeing as how he is the only the second boy that has appeared since boy A. He seemed to be a very quiet little boy. I talked to him and he invited me to play video games with him. As we played video games, I noticed that he indeed was not as quiet as I thought. He is 13 years old, but he seemed as if he had the mentality of a 10 year old boy. Nevertheless, he was fun to play with and interact with.
After everyone came back from group, I realized that one of the girls was very upset. She didn't want to talk to anyone and she was very angry. I will call her girl C. I was happy to know that when I sat down and talked with her about her family issues she brightened up and wanted to interact with the other children/teens in the house. We taught boy B how to play a card game called spades. He caught on very quick. It was fun and I did not leave until the game was finished. We had so much fun!
Thursday, September 4, 2008(5.5 hours): This was the second day of school for the kids. Only one girl in the house did not go to school. They all came in the house tired and exhausted, and were upset with the idea that they had to go to their group that night. Girl D who has been there since the first day I started, was especially exhausted from school. A new girl was there. I will call her girl E. This girl is very sweet, but she is "too grown" for her age. At barely 13, she wears make-up etc. But this did not deter me from interacting with her, and she is indeed a very nice young lady with a slight attitude problem. We all sat down when everyone got back and played scrable, and the other 2 counselors also played. We all helped the kids with words. One of the counselors was telling us about her assignment for school about Emmett till, a man who was brutally attacked during the Jim Crow era, the kids seemed very interested in the history.
They then went to their group and we started thinking of things we could cook for dinner. When they came back, they had a session with AIDS community services and watched a video concerning the high amounts of people in the Buffalo, NY and the Toronto, Ontario areas. They had a question and answer session that was really interesting, and by the question and answer session alone you can tell that that majority of the children/teens in the house were already sexually active.
After, the video, it was dinner time. We sat and joked and ate. It was soo much fun! Honestly, by looking at these children you cannot tell what is going on in their personal lives at all. Only through talking to them will you finally figure out what the problems may be. I love the enviorment, because it seems so family orientated. The next week should be interesting, because by this point they will have homework that we have to make sure they do, and help them with if necessary.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008(5 hours 10 min.): Again, Tuesdays evenings are a bit slow before the children have a long group excersize, but this day I got to be involved with my first In-take. In-take is when a new member is brought into the house. I am usually never there when new children come in, so this made me very happy. I did not get to sit in on the process, but I was able to say hi and meet the new child. I will call him boy C. He is very nice, but he was very attached to his cell phone when he got there and would not let go of it until one of his friends came to pick it up. I am also becoming more comfortable with answering the phone.
Before dinner, I went outside with Boy A and boy B and played basketball and football with them. It was a lot of fun. At dinner, everyone sat down and we ate pizza and wings, the new boy wasn't as shy as I expected him to be. He started laughing and joking with everyone else.
Thursday, September 11, 2008(3 hours): This day I did not stay very long, but I did get to stay long enough to ask the kids how their day at school was and how everything was going, and just to have general conversation with them. They went to group, and I sat and talked to the counselors about somethings regarding some of the kids. I also found out the Boy A would be leaving and that the reason boy C was here and had no where to go was due to his sexual orientation. I thought this was very interesting because a lot of my friends have had those same type of problems or issues.
I was a little sad that Boy A was leaving because he was funny and he always used to make me laugh, but its good that he is going to go to a healthier enviornment. Not saying that he is innocent in the reason he had to come to compass house in the first place, but he will be in a better enviornment, that will not hinder his performance in day to day life.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008(5.5 hours): On this day, I met all the new children that had come in within the last week. Girl C was the only person still there that I knew. When I first came in Girl C was happy to see me and was playing a video game; she does not go to school. She aspires to go to Job Core and should be hopefully leaving soon. I interacted with her until the other children came in. I met all of them and talked with them while watching them play a football video game, which I found extra amusing! I met one girl who was a little different and very quiet; I will call her Girl F.The kids then left for the group excersize.
The other counselors and I started thinking of things to cook for dinner. The one counselor decided to make up a bunch of different left over foods and let everyone pick whatever they wanted from about 6 or 7 different things. The children came back and a new boy came in that day. I will call him Boy D. He was very sweet and quiet. We all sat down and Girl C taught me a card game called Skip-bo. It was a weird card game and a little dificult because of all the rules, but I and Boy D caught on rather quickly and Boy D actually ended up winning. It was a very fun night. We sat down for dinner and everyone talked and enjoyed.
Thursday, September 25, 2008(2 hours and 10 min.): This day I was unaware of the fact that the kids had to go to a 3 hour group process. I was invited, but declined and told them I would go the next time they went, because I was unprepared to sit for their process; also one of the other counselors already had to go. But, in the time I was there, I finally got to know Girl F. This was a great conversation. I found out so much about her and her personal life, she even shared with me why she was there and what had happened to her and things that she had endured. I felt very happy that she was so willing to share this information with me and the conversation we had let me know why she seemed so off we I first met her and why she didn't interact with the other teens as much. I also found out that she was very intelligent and that she aspires to go to college and one day become a Social Worker, so that she can help children who have been in the situations she has been through and hopefully make their lives a lot better. I thought this was a very warm hearted aspiration and I gave her some tips on college. She was very thankful for the information. It was truly an awesome conversation.
Thursday, October 2, 2008(5.25 hours): This day I found especially interesting. When I came in, there were only 3 people in the entire house; and they were all boys. All teenage boys at that. I went down stairs to introduce myself there were two black boys and one white boy. And all three of them were interacting with each other greatly. All of them were great guys and fun to play with. All of us must have played pool for an hour and a half. My mentor was down there with us as well, and it was so much fun watching all the guys interact, because boys truly are competitive. We were making jokes and I was helping the guys cheat; telling them which balls to hit and how to hit them, so that they could beat my mentor, cuz being that he is a man, he hates to lose. During the time that we were playing pool I learned that one of the boys wants to go to the air force or army to help defend our country. Two of the three boys were definitely were comfortable to talk about their futures, especially because they were older 16 adn 17 years of age.
After our pool session, they had to go to their mini group sessiono at the resource center. During this time we thought about what to cook for dinner. They only stayed at the center for about an hour. They came back and a lady from aids community service came and showed them a movie. She showed Juno. Just as I expected, the guys hated it. When we sat down to dinner, they just kept saying how boring it was and how they had seen it before and it was soooo boring. I laughed. Interestingly enough, after eating dinner we all got into a very good discussion about the presidential election, and the boys really seemed to get into that conversation, fittingly because the debate was coming on that night. I was impressed by the amount of information these young men knew about politics. This was a great night.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008(5.5 hours): This day it was a whole different set of kids, with the exception of one of the boys. This night was so far my hardest night there, because one of the new girls was really mouthy and liked to talk back. Luckily, I didn't meet her until it was time for them to go to the resource center. The first girl I met on this day was sitting in the chair watching Law and Order. At first she was very quiet and didn't want to talk, but I started coversing with her about if she was a Law and Order fan, and we got into a good dicussion about Law and Order SVU and CSI and all those types of shows. In my opinion I think she would be a great forensic scientist. The one boy that was in the house was bored with our show so he asked to go outside.
They children had to leave for group. While they were gone I learned that the other male that was in the house was going to get kicked out because he wouldn't comply with the rules. We sat in the living room waiting for him to get back, and one of the other workers told him that he has to leave because he was complying to the rules. From what I gathered by previous night, the boy was very disrespectful. The kids came back from their many group and I interacted with them. This is when I had to force myself to be extra quiet because the one young lady previously mentioned was becoming very mouthy. After dinner, the girl was asked to leave the house and her mother was called. This was my first challenging night.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008(5.75 hours): This day was particularly quiet. There were only two children in this house at this point. There was a new girl and a boy there that had been there for about three weeks now. For the time I was coming, he never really wanted to talk to me, but on this day he was laughing with me, talking to me, and he seemed to feel more comfortable around me. At the same time that I talked to him, I was getting to know the new girl. I liked her a lot she was very nice. We talked about tv shows and she actually shared with me her situation and that she was to leave the next day. We both like a show on Sci-Fi called Scare Tactics, and we had the boy watch it with us. It was such a fun experience we laughed and the boy jumped a couple of times. It was great.
They then went to their small group excersize as they always do, and the rest of the evening was pretty much the typical rest of the evening. Talking, dinner, etc.
Thursday, October 16, 2008(5 hours): This was another very quiet day. When I came my mentor, one of the other interns and the one new boy was there playing monopoly. I joined in. There were only two boys in the house and the boy that has been there a while left out after coming in from school to be with his uncle for a while, so the one new male was the only one there. He seemed nice, but aggravated. He left out to meet with his counselor and came back about 30 minutes later. From the time he got back until the time he had to go to group, he was on the phone. He went to group, came back about 30 minutes later and got on the phone and stayed on the phone for about an hour until he was finally made to hang up. I asked him if he was ok, and his response was "yes, I am ok; I just really don't want to be here. At first I did, now I don't even want to be here. I shouldn't even be here in the first place." Then he stopped responding and I just left him to himself. I remembered what he said, because many kids say that when they come in, and a lot of them just leave and try to find somewhere safe to stay that isn't at compass house.
Then there was dinner and it was time for me to leave.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008(5.25 hours): This day is definitely what I would consider more exciting. On this day, there were 5 kids in the house (3 boys and 2 girls), but I only met the 3 boys and one of the girls. They all ranged from ages 13 to 16. I enjoyed hanging out with them. When i first walked into the house, there was one boy there and 1 girl there. I immediately started talking to them and joking around with them. We then went down stairs to play pool; we did this for quite some time. Afterwards, we went upstairs and played I declare war (card game), while the girl was drawing. It was a lot of fun. Soon, the other two boys came into the house and I met them. When the boy that I was intially playing cards with had to do something, I played with one of the other ones. I found all of these children to be very interesting. All the boys were very competative. All the boys had to leave for group. The one girl stayed, because her grandmother was coming to visit and to take her out to dinner. During this time, I got to know the girl better and I found out that she was the youngest in the house, only 13. She seemed a little upset and happy at the same time. She was happy that she was going to be able to live with family member in California instead of going through her situation, but at the same time she was upset, because she was going to miss all of her friends. We talked for about an hour, and while doing so she was drawing for me. She is very talented. We also played "Go fish".
She then left with her grandmother, and the three boys came back. We all went into the living room and played video games. This was a lot of fun, watching all of them react with each other. This went on until dinner time, in which case we all went to eat. After dinner was over, they had to do chores and it was time for me to leave. It was a more active day than it had been in many days I had been there.
Thursday, October 31, 2008(4 hours): When I got there, there was a new child there that needed to go through the in-take process, so that they can stay in the house. The child was a twelve year old female. I was asked to sit in on the process so that I could learn how to do it. The process consists of filling out papers, going over house rules, finding out why the child is here, if there are any special needs required and giving the child a tour of the house. I sat and watched with this new child. I received a lof of information on her, but due to confidentiality I cannot mention anything that took place. After all paper work was done, I gave her a tour of the house. I then found out that all the children were at the resource center, because of a Halloween party, and I was asked to take the new girl and to watch all the children until it was time to come back and then to walk them back. The party was pretty nice, there was food and snacks for the kids and there were many games and activities everyone young, middle, and old could engage in. Around 6:40 pm I walked the children back safely and made sure they signed into the house. Then I left.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008 (8 hours): On this day I did a full shift for the first time. When I came in the children were playing video games. There were the same 3 boys that had been there for about a week and the same 1 girl for about a week and a new girl. We played video games talked and joked around until about 5:30 when they had to eat dinner. They ate dinner early this day because they were going to a UB football game. One of the other counselors and myself had to stay back just in case there were some children that called or came to seek shelter etc. After dinner, they did some chores and sat around and watched election coverage until it was time to go around 6:30pm.
They returned back around 10:00pm; they left the game early because one of the children had "...very bad anxiety around large crowds" as the child put it to one of the counselors. We continued to watch election coverage with the children and they also finished their daily chores. At 10:30pm it was time for the children to get ready for bed. At 11:00pm, it was their bed time and lights out. Then I left. The kids to my surprise, were very interested in the election and all wanted Barack Obama to win. I wish I could have been there when they announced it and the children found out.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008(8 hours): When I came in I was told that there were 4 kids in the house. Only one of the boys I previously worked with was still there. On this day I noticed, that the boy that I knew must be feeling more comfortable with me, because he tried to get mouthy with me and lie to me so he could get out of doing his daily chores. He knew I wasn't going for it. This day was pretty calm. A few potential in-takes came in, but none of them stayed, because they all had other places that could and would rather be. When I came in the kids were playing video games, then they left to go to their group excersize.
When they returned we played some "Brain game" video games like "..Smarter than a 5th grade" and things of that nature. It was fun. One of the children was exceptionally intelligent. We then had dinner and they kids started doing their nightly chores. My mentor had to leave early so it pretty much was just me and one other worker. The kids started playing board games and such etc. this went on until about 10 pm when it was time for them to finish their chores and then they went up to get ready for bed, and I sat down stairs and waited for the night crew to come in. It was a pretty good day.
Sunday, November 16, 2008(8.25 hours): This day there were 4 kids in the house. All of which that had been there on the previous Tuesday minus one. And the fourth teenager was one that had been there a couple of weeks ago. I spoke of him in earlier logs about being competitive, intelligent and a great competitor. This day he was out of the house until about 7:30ish. Sundays are a pretty busy day in the house, because so many interns come in to get hours. So I did not get much one on one time with the kids because there were 2 other interns present. But I did get to help them in a very intense game of Scrabble, and I helped with dinner. After the other interns left, there was more time to actually talk to the kids. We watched TV, they did their chores, we talked and joked around and had a good time. They went to sleep early on this night, because all of them had to wake up early the next morning so that they could make sure they got to school on time. This was one of the most calm days ever.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008(8 hours): There were now only three children in the house and none of them were new. This seemed to be a rather calm evening; the phone barely rung, there were 1 or no phone call sheets, and there were no intakes. The kids also did not have group on this day, so I got more time with them. This I can say was a fun day. For about an hour or 2 we watched some very interesting shows on the A and E channel. Then the video games started. From this point on, only stopping to eat and do chores, the teens and the counselors were in video game heaven. They must have played a total of 3-6 different video games. It was fun watching them play, and being what one teen called me "a cheerleader". Within this video game heaven they did stop to eat dinner and to do their chores, but other than that, it was video games, video games, video games. It truly was a very fun night, maybe one of the most entertaining nights since I have been doing this internship. My time is winding down in the internship and soon I will be done.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008(9 hours): It is now officially back to the way that it was when I first started. When I came in, there were 6 children and when I left there were 7. This day was very eventful for me.....I came in, helped straighted up and waited for hte kids to get back from school. After they started arriving, they were sent over to have group at the other building. While they were gone, it was on me to find what to cook for that night. I decided since they are going to be eating good for thanksgiving, I would make something quick and delicious; so I made pizza and french fries. One of the girls that I have become most fond of, who has been there for about 3 weeks now, helped me cook and set the table.
While I was cooking, the kids that were there were playing video games. We all sat down to dinner. After the kids ate and I assigned chores for the night, a new boy was dropped off by his mother, and I had to do his intake. I wrote up all the paper work, explained rules and got him settled in. That took about 2 hours. In-takes are a very long process. After that, it was bed time for the kids, I said goodnight to all of them, and gave the daily information to the night crew.
Thursday, November 27, 2008(8 hours): This day was Thanksgiving day. This day was really smooth and relaxing. Someone cooked Thanksgiving Dinner for the kids and supplied everything we would need to feed them. There was not formality to this day. Because it was a holiday, the kids pretty much had a free day where they could just relax, eat when they wanted to, and play games all day; and that is exactly what they did. They would play video games or board games, then they would get some food, play pool and other games, come back and get some more food, it was a very nice day.
I pretty much spent the entire time there hanging out the with the kids, eating dinner with them, and playing games and watching movies with them the entire evening. They also were allowed to stay up passed their bedtime (10:30 pm) and watch movies until about 1 am, because there was no school the following day.
This was a very nice night and I felt really good sharing my Thanksgiving with kids that did not really have anyone to share it with, for the most part. There were a couple of kids who were allowed to be with some members of their families, but even with the few being able to leave, most of them had no where else to go. And to my suprise, none of the kids were depressed. They had a lot of fun with the other kids there.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008(8.25 hours): This was my final day at my internship. I went to the resource center to get the intern supervisor to sign my final papers. I then went to the Linwood house and watched "I now pronounce you Chuck and Larry" with the kids. It was a funny movie. The kids then went to group. During the time they were at group time my on-site supervisor finished my final paper work for my internship, and we decided what we were going to make the kids for dinner. Also, while the kids were gone, one of the boys that I truly like the most came to get him belongings and left to go to his mom. I was very happy that things worked out for him, but a little sad that he would not be around.
When the kids returned, I had an in-take to do. There was a returning resident and this was her 3rd time at Compass House. I cannot say much about her situation, but I feel really bad for the girl's situation. One of the other girls also left on this night. Her home situation improved and she was allowed to go back home. So when the night came to a conclusion, only 4 children (2 girls and 2 boys) were there. After dinner, I finished the intake, the kids did some of their chores and it was pretty much a movie night until bed time. There were put to bed at 10:30pm and I cleaned up a bit to get ready for the night shift.
I truly enjoyed this internship at Compass House and learned a lot from both the staff I worked with and the kids that I met during the couple of months I interned. It was a great experience and I highly recommend this practicum experience to anyone who wants to work with children. It was truly a skill strengthening journey and it is something I can carry with me for the rest of my life.