Continuing to work with Kate over this month, I met up with both her and Sasha on the Tuesday 21st of May as we were trying to brainstorm ways to make up as many placement hours as possible before the deadline on the 24th. Although I feel like I have gained some great experience already while volunteering at this charity and I am so excited about the future opportunities I may have from this placement, I am getting quite stressed about meeting this deadline. On Monday 20th I applied for extenuating circumstances as due to my struggle in securing a placement at the beginning of this module, I was unable to begin my placement hours until the 1st April and have struggled to aquire the full 50 hours in time. We met to sign of the mid-way paperwork and discuss how my overall experience volunteering for the charity was going. Sasha gave me some more intensive reading that would help prepare me for the summer role I will be working as during the summer. Although this was quite a lot to get through, I found the topic of domestic abuse so interesting as I have never really done much research into it before so it was all very new to me. I also met up with Kate discussing how everything had been going through the past couple weeks and she showed me various resources I may be able to use while helping the children I have been visiting.
I also organised for me to go and meet one of the mums and her youngest daughter at their home on Wednesday 22nd so I could introduce myself to her properly and allow the child to get comfortable around me and familiar with my face. It was a great opportunity to see what a ‘home visit’ is like when working with the charity. I was really nervous at first as it was the first time I was completely alone without Kate being there even just for the beginning, however, the family were so lovely and was it nice to just introduce myself to them so they wouldn’t feel weird me looking after her child. I arranged another ‘home visit’ on Wednesday 5th June so the little girl can continue to be familiar with me as she does get quite upset when her mum even leaves her sight. The aim is for her to feel comfortable and safe enough with me that her mum and her eldest child can have 1-1 support with Kate and other members from the SAFE charity.
After my meeting with Sasha and Kate on the Tuesday, I was given to opportunity to attend at TAF (Team Around Family) Meeting. I met one of the children from this family and the dad at the Seedlings group over the summer so I had already had a brief introduction to their case, however, sitting in on this kind of meeting was so interesting to me as it allowed me to see how all the different people who are supporting and working with the family are staying in touch and communicating what is happening. This is a family of 3 children all of similar ages so there are quite a few different people working with them therefore this communication and organisation is so vital. The group was made up of a woman from Devon County Council, the dad, the head of Safeguarding at the childrens school and 2 DARP’s from SAFE and me. The TAF was around an hour long, where they discussed confidentially the support already in place for this family and how it is going and any extra support that might be needed. I really enjoyed taking part in this as I got the opportunity to meet many different people who work in the field I am really passionate about and hope to gain a career in and I may be able to gain an opportunity to work with the older children within this family which I am really excited about. I am going to continue to work with this family alongside Kate.
(MEETINGS@SAFE = 3hrs, READING = 4hrs, HOME VISIT = 2hrs, TAF MEETING = 1hr) = 10hrs
TOTAL HOURS COMPLETED: 40hrs