I have 5 site visits scheduled this week, and I'm ready to go!
The funniest one was definitely Rainbow Child Care Center visit... well, technically visits. Heather and I met with someone from the center on Monday, only it wasn't at the center and she ended up talking with us for quite some time about Heather's life. Poor Heather! I tried my best to redirect the conversation, but to no avail. At the end, she called someone else from the center and scheduled a meeting for us to meet with them (and at the center, thankfully). Actually going out to the site is important for liability and capacity building purposes. Simply put: this site visit has definitely been the most interesting so far. Despite the eccentricity of our encounter, she was happy to hear about the workshops we have planned though, and hopes to strengthen her organizational and social media skills. I know she's very interested in grant writing and community-based research for the center as well!
We also visited the University Center East, which is a not-for-profit facility right on New York that provides short or long-term care and rehabilitation for those who need it. It's a smaller facility that can hold about 53 residents. The only nursing homes that I've ever had experience in were much bigger and looked like a hotel, so this site visit in particular has really stuck with me. Dee,the program coordinator, was happy to give us a tour, and was also well prepared to discuss what she needed in regards to volunteers! Since it is a smaller, not too glamorous facility, she was explaining that they are always in need of volunteers. Many of the residents will spend the rest of their lives at the center, and they can't leave the premises, so contact with the outside community is something that the residents deeply appreciate. I'm excited to work with them in the future, because they definitely have a lot of needs that aren't being met.
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