Starfish Family Services is a private, nonprofit agency serving vulnerable children and families located in Metro Detroit. Starfish helps individuals and families create personal success through strategic programs and focused outreach. These programs include mental health services, schooling/daycare early childhood education, teen parent programs, a shelter and crisis center, and other community programs. Their staff include more than 400 professionals - social workers, psychiatrists, nurses, educators and nutritionists. They have several locations through southeastern Michigan but the main headquarters has been located in Inkster for 50 years.
The only way this organization can accomplish their goals is through the help of volunteers. Their brochure stresses the need for volunteers in all settings and they even staff a full time volunteer resource coordinator. The Baby Power group that I was supposed to help with the most is especially critical to have volunteers for because of an attempt to get a 1:1 ratio between children and staff. This is important in making sure that each child is being interacted with and that a progress note can be written on their activities for that day. My project, as I told the specialist, was to help wherever they needed me most until the Baby Power sessions started as to fulfill their need for help at their events. The volunteer specialist stated that they want it to be a co-curricular experience as well and they care about what the volunteers are getting out of helping as well as part of their need.
My first day volunteer was spent in meetings trying to understand the different programs they put on. My first event that I worked was a teen parenting program where they did some activities with moms aged 15-21 while we gave them a break and watched their children by playing with them and putting them to nap. The second program I attended had both teen mothers and fathers there, attempting to give them better ways to interact with each other for their child. Once again, we took the children with a wide variety of ages to another room to occupy them and give their parents a break. The other way I spent my hours was in the different classrooms at the main headquarters. I went to the Early Head Start room twice. This room has ages 1.5-3 years old and I played with the kids, helped with hand-washing and lunch, etc. The Head Start room had ages 3-5 years and I played with the kids after their lesson and helped clean up after their lunch. The last day at the headquarters I went to the Infant Room and helped put the babies to nap through rocking them.
The main event I am helping with, that will continue until early June 2016 is the Baby Power group. This is a 10 week program for moms with children 0-6 years old to help them gain a support group as well as go through a curriculum that helps them parent better through creating better positive attachment with their children and it is part of a bigger research study through U of M. The event goes from 3:30-7:30 and includes setup as well as debrief where we discuss what we witnessed while watching the children that week during playtime away from their mother.
Overall, my experience was really good. I was able to witness and interact with a lot of different children with a variety of lived experiences. Some of the children were more advanced, some had delays. Some were very relaxed and others needed a lot of extra attention. It was a great way to put together what I have learned in developmental psychology and through reading research articles with real life experiences. It was also nice because I helped them out a lot as I was the only non-staff volunteer for the Wednesday Baby Power session and they counted on me to be there for some of those events. The professionals I worked with gave me some insight into the field and what some prospective jobs may be for me in the future. I think that both myself and the organization benefited from these hours.
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