Human Service Reflection

Over the past five weeks I have been tasked with selecting, meeting with, and interviewing two different human service providers that service the City of Worcester. This project was meant for the students to learn about different services that are offered in the city, as well as their challenges and successes. At first, I selected Belmont AME Zion Church and Seven Hills Foundation, but because of challenges with speaking to a human service worker at Seven Hills, Professor Rivera recommended Worcester Interfaith as an alternative service to be interviewed. When the project was announced to the class I felt nervous about fitting the work into my already hectic schedule, but once I started the process, the experience was amazing. I learned

Anika has not received any official schooling or training for this kind of work, but has learned as she goes, so the industry would call her a paraprofessional because it is an entry level position in the human service world that does not require a degree (Mehr & Kanwischer, 2011, p. 31). Because the church does not provide transportation, the program serves the neighborhoods surrounding the church, but they do have children that come from as far as Tatnuck Square in Worcester. This program is funded by donations, but Anika mentioned that it is not enough, so a lot of times she takes money out of her own pocket to keep the program alive. When speaking about challenges she immediately spoke about behavior issues that a lot of the children have and that it can become unmanageable. She spoke about a specific case where a young boy had bipolar and ADHD, and because he caused such a disturbance with the other children, Anika needed to have him removed from the program. Later, she recalled that he was able to rejoin the program because he was now willing to make a change and his motivation was the ability to rejoin the program. Looking back on this part of the interview, I am able to make the connection with a recent discussion in class about motivation and how there are three elements that must be present in the person in order for them to change (Mehr & Kanwischer, 2011, p. 198-9). These elements are, (1) “the change has to be important to the person,” (2) the person “has to feel confident” that change is possible in their life, and (3) the person “has to be ready to change” (Mehr & Kanwischer, 2011, p. 198-9). This child told Anika that it was important for him to return to the after-school program and that he knew he was not behaving well, he knew he would be able to change, and was ready to do