Final Journal...

As I was in my Field placement today I wrote my "final journal" for the class....

I thought it was alright, so I decided to share it with you--- since you have been on this journey with me. :)

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There are so many things that I can say about my field placement. Almost all of them good, but there should always be some sort of constructive criticism, or just a little more advice.
When I picked the Department of Community Development I was walking into this placement with little understanding of what a city Community Development department does. It felt like I was walking in “blind.” After catching up on who is who in the department and what happens when—things started to pick up. I was involved in Press Conferences, press releases, workshops, board meetings, neighborhood meetings, implementation of new ideas and projects but most of all I was apart of a community of people that wanted to change their city. Whether or not they had different ideas, views, political agendas or backgrounds. I was a part of this community. Throughout the past 15ish weeks I was literally apart of community development.
After that first week, I chose my paper topic for capstone. I wanted to know the basics, what community development was, how it can be implemented, what jobs are available when working in this sort of department and I was flooded with books, journals, articles, blogs, and much more on different ideas of development with the community. After all of that I started to look at Community Development a bit differently. It is more than just neighborhoods, more than just nonprofits; it literally is about the people. Macro Social work is about the mass of people that want to see change.
I’ve learned so much over the past 15 weeks that I will always be thankful for. Whether it is learning about fundraising when researching for a workshop, or about property maintenance when going on a walk with one of the inspectors, there was a huge variety for me.

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It's strange to think that this will be over on Tuesday of next week...

Blessings of Peace-
Anna