TreskaDunbar

Treska Dunbar

Journal/Reflection

SOWK 350

March 10, 2009

Today I worked at the Music City Mission. This agency was different than any other agency that we have worked with this week. At the Music City Mission they serve not only the homeless, but low income people as well. They provide the clients with food boxes as well as clothing. The clients at the Music City Mission were from differing backgrounds. I saw quite a few different racial groups, mostly Latinos. There were also a lot of children at the mission. The children all played with one another and seemed to have no idea of their economic state.

At one point today I was in the office as a lady was “checking out”. The mission only allows them to have 8 items of clothing per person. It made me sad to see that this lady had 8 outfits; however, she could only take half of them because of the eight item rule. Our group spent hours sorting clothing and there was a lot of clothing so I don’t really understand why they have the eight item limit.

While at the mission I did a variety of activities. I helped clean the facility; which, could seem like an obnoxious task, but I feel like it is important that the mission look nice and appealing for the clients. I also helped with the sorting of clothing. This is important, because it makes it easier for the clients to find the clothing sizes that they need. I felt like the work we did was important in helping this disadvantaged population better themselves.

One of the best parts of today for me was getting to talk to Paul. Paul is a social worker in Nashville and a volunteer at the Music City Mission. As a social work major it is always exciting when you get to talk to someone who is currently practicing social work, but it is more exciting to talk to a practicing social worker who loves what they are doing and in a field similar to the one you want to enter. Paul works with juveniles and is currently working with homelessness and specifically juvenile homelessness. My desire is to work with juveniles, so it was great to meet someone who is in the field I want to pursue. He gave me a lot of insight into the profession and the field as well as inspired me to fulfill my desire to serve the juvenile population.