Circle Center Reflection

Volunteering at The Circle Center was a learning experience is multiple ways, learning in the context of course work, learning about people and their lives, and learning about myself. This experience has helped me increase my self-awareness and realize that I am very introverted and shy when it comes to talking to and interacting with new people. While communicating with participants I noticed that I tend to shift my attention to other things after a while and my eye contact is lost. This is a serious mishap in my communication skills that I need to improve because it can negatively affect my relationship with future clients as it may make them feel as if I am not interested in listening to them, let alone work with them. I also learned that …show more content…
The participants there loves It because they have independence and the agency doesn’t place many restrictions on them unless it is detrimental to their safety or health. There is one thing that I think should be changed because I have seen it happen often during lunch time. Each participant has a card with their name and any dietary restrictions on it so the staff could know what and what not to prepare for them. One day I was assisting with the distribution of lunches and they were having pork B-B-Q sandwiches, when I gave one lady her lunch she asked me if it was pork or chicken and I let her know that it was pork, she had then told me that she couldn’t eat pork because her doctor told her not to due to her cholesterol. I immediately told the staff and asked If there was something else they could give her and they said that they could not accommodate her for that because the restriction was not listed on the card, nor on file. I felt so bad because she didn’t have anything to eat for lunch, I strongly think that they could have offered her an alternative such as a peanut butter and jelly sandwich so she wouldn’t be the hungry until snack time. Overall, my experience at The Circle Center has been outstanding. I have learned so much about myself and about social work. The experience has pushed me to improve my communication skills and taught me what I need to do to expand on my professional growth. Completing Service Learning hours here as motivated me to pursue a career as a social worker to improve the stability of people but it has also help me realize that I am not interested in gerontology as much as children. Although I rather work with child welfare, I will still take the learning experience from this agency with me to grow