Day 2 Reflections- Robbe Simon

Since it was my first day of working at Share Our Selves, I admit that I was a bit nervous. Based on my preliminary research that S.O.S was a pretty large organization that helped the homeless and working poor of Orange County by providing food, educational opportunities, child care dental care, and medical benefits. Upon arriving at S.O.S, we were greeted by Ms. Larson, who prepped us on the rules and workings of the facility, gave us a tour of the facility, and divided us up into different roles. I was chosen to complete secretarial work (copying forms etc.) along with Allison. Our job was to do anything that our S.O.S staff member (veronica) felt needed to be completed. We therefore began by copying financial and social aid forms for those who needed ideas for job opportunities among other things. Ms Larson informed us that one particular form listed a number of job opportunities in the area that hired ex-felons. I had never previously thought on the life of felons after their time in jail, and it was eye opening to realize the difficulties these people must face. For our next project, Allison and I worked on the sign up forms for families seeking Thanksgiving food bags. It was interesting to see how organized S.O.S was in distributing Thanksgiving food bags. Apparently a staff member that had worked in the facility previously was a rocket scientist who was quiet adept in designing plans of the sort. Each form was color coded by day of the week as well as time of day, and asked for the names and other information about the family seeking a Thanksgiving basket. This method allowed only a certain amount of people to seek baskets at a given time, minimizing the need for people to wait around. Although I learned new things from my experience today (working a copying machine) I hope in our next service learning day I will have the chance to connect personally with some of the people seeking food bags. RS