Internship Reflections

Throughout the spring of 2024, JONAH had three interns from the Social Work Department at UWEC. Here are their reflections on their time with JONAH.

Dallas Crawford

Organizing can be disorganizing sometimes. As I end my time with JONAH, I reflect on what I have learned and how I feel about the last few months. At the start of my internship, I was worried about not having enough hours each week and not meeting the expectations of my supervisor or professor. I also felt a little envious of the other students in different internships because I felt like they were accomplishing more and getting more experience from the things they were doing. That is how I felt.

Now, I cannot help but smile when someone asks me how I feel about my internship. JONAH has been an experience. I have learned to network with people. I have gotten more comfortable with public speaking. I have learned to write an effective agenda and make sure a meeting ends on time. I know way more about the grant application process and deadlines than I thought I’d ever know. I know the work that goes into making any well-organized event. I know that community organizing is not an overnight job, but something that can take weeks, months, and even years to reach an end goal. In JONAH’s case, the true grassroots organizing they do is slowly built through connecting one-on-one with individuals and learning their passions.

The power of one-on-one connections was something that Lynn, the JONAH Organizer, drilled into each of the interns, and I have learned why it is so important. A one-on-one connection and conversation with a person is the start of an effective community-organizing partnership. True grassroots organizing cannot take place without finding people who have a passion for the work. The one-on-one conversations I had with people were the highlight of my internship. No matter what the discussion topic was, I always felt a connection during those conversations because of the passion that they brought to the table. As a student, I had been told about the importance of one-on-one connections with people, but working with JONAH, I got to witness the power of those connections and how important they are for the community.

I helped organize a social justice film festival and organized two events for letter-writing to non-voters. I also was given the opportunity to tour and shadow different organizations in the community, such as the Beacon House and Juvenile Detention Center. I attended the HSHS Vigil, Culture Fest, and the Brain Conference and witnessed community members coming together and talking about important issues. As my internship ends, I am working on revitalizing a JONAH book club and am excited to see where that goes!

Despite the HSHS vigil taking place over a month ago, it has stayed in my mind since then. I had never attended a vigil before and did not know what to expect walking into that space. What I ended up taking away from the experience was a feeling of togetherness and an acceptance of my feelings around the closure of Sacred Heart. The BRAIN Conference, for me, was a nice opportunity to meet and network with so many different professionals who work directly with humans. I am excited to see what the BRAIN Team does next in the coming years. It was a very eye-opening experience, and I am glad I was allowed to attend.

During my internship, I was given the chance to figure out what self-care routines work best for me. It was difficult to balance my internship work from home life because much of my work was done at home and many JONAH events are happening during the weekend. The nature of my internship forced me to regulate when and where I work and respond to emails. I am much better at setting up professional boundaries for myself to ensure and prolong my personal and professional success. The self-care skills I developed during my time at JONAH will be helpful for me when I start new professional roles in the future. 

I will leave my internship with a greater respect and knowledge of community organizing. It is amazing to witness how interconnected everything is when looking from an organizing perspective. The support I have received from my supervisor and other JONAH members to explore whatever areas I am passionate about and lead my own projects has been invaluable. My biggest takeaway from JONAH is the power of stories. A single story can have an impact on so many people and act as a foundation for action. My internship might be ending, but my time with JONAH will continue.

Erin Ries

Reflecting on my entire internship experience, it’s hard to put it into words given the vast range of experiences and emotions felt throughout it. In the beginning was a lot of uncertainty given the nature of the JONAH organization and internship as quite unique compared to other internship placements (being a grassroots, community, macro-focused organization, it is not as structured and has a lot more freedom for what can be done in comparison to a county organization, for example). I was ambivalent at the start, questioning where and how I was going to fit in and the work I would be taking part in. However, I knew the areas (task forces) I wanted to focus on and make a difference within, and because of that I already felt a sense of connection with members given our shared passion. Even with a shared passion, it took me quite a bit of time to feel comfortable, share ideas, express concerns, and be more independent, but it was the biggest area of growth I saw within myself. 

Being independent was definitely one of the biggest elements I had to grow into as I was not as confident in my skills and knowledge when I first started compared to where I am now. It was difficult to recognize the strengths I had and feel good about my work without constant guidance. I was given many opportunities to accomplish my own work and do tasks that were out of my comfort zone. I spoke at events, to representatives and constituents, and went out into the community many times to make connections. I was pushed, and it was scary at the time, and I wish I had been able to see in myself what everyone in the organization saw within me at the start.

Making connections and doing one-on-ones was certainly another huge area of growth for me. I have always been a more reserved person and not very outspoken, so it was certainly intimidating and anxiety-provoking for me to do one-on-ones. The more I dove into this experience, the more that the great amount of the anxiety and intimidation I originally felt seemed to melt away. One thing that really helped me was knowing that it is a precious moment of connection that we often take for granted, and I have built many lasting relationships throughout the community now that I can take with me for a lifetime. I have been grateful that most of my one-on-ones were very organic and natural, but it certainly helps to have some mental questions prepared to keep the conversation moving. Also, recognizing my feelings going into the conversation and perhaps that the person I was meeting was also anxious helped ease those feelings. We are all people at the end of the day. What I learned was to be fully present, listen more and talk less, acknowledge discomfort, come prepared, and come with the intention of building a connection. Through it all, I was able to build a strong appreciation for the relationships and knowledge it gave me, feel more comfortable starting conversations naturally, and feel more connected to my community. 

When I look back on everything I have done and all of the amazing relationships I have built, I can’t help but feel a sense of uncertainty for what is to come and a feeling of loss for JONAH as a whole. This experience has helped me grow into a person I am immensely proud of, not just professionally, but personally. My voice, confidence, and independence are stronger than they have ever been. I have developed a deep, passionate love for building community and relationships, advocating at all levels, listening and understanding real lived experiences and the list goes on. This work has brought me so much joy and a deeper, meaningful purpose for life. I am beyond thankful for everyone who guided me, pushed me, and supported me throughout this entire experience. I now have a community, relationships, and knowledge that I will carry with me in my heart and mind for a lifetime, and for those I am eternally grateful.

Here’s a list of my successes.

Mental Health:

• Research on veteran and farmer mental health resources
• Developed rural mental health brochure
• Completed 2 Green Bandana Project presentations at schools 
• Outreach to 10+ local schools and around 100 mental health providers.
• Communications about GBP trainings (poster/flyer creation)
• Green bandana tabling (campus, mental health fair, community events)
• Social media 

Environmental

• Earth Claire event
• Earth Week at the brewing project
• Completed assessment and summary of resources and gaps in the community
• Amazing Eau Claire clean-up
• Waste audits
• Many one-to-ones with current members
• Plastic free EC
• Attended the biodiversity partnership 

Affordable Housing

• Wausau Housing Summit
• Direct outreach at Haven House
• Shadowing intake assessments
• Tours, meetings, and relationship-building at
  • SOJO
  • Haven House
  • UCP
  • ADRC
  • Tenant Landlord Resource Center (Madison)
  • Libby – Library
  • Quincey Chapman – UWEC housing director
  • UW Madison off-campus housing director
  • Jodi Emerson
  • UWEC Intergovernmental Affairs Commission 
• Started my own advocacy project with UWEC Homeless Week.
  • Developed an off-campus housing survey.
• Outreach to landlords
• HUD Fair Housing training
• Work with the Street Ministry
• Organized and presented at the Understanding Your Lease event
• Tabling on UWEC campus
• Housing First research
• Tenant/landlord Wisconsin laws research

General:

• Social Justice Film Fest organization and implementation
• Brat stand fundraiser
• JONAH EDI assessment
• Voter outreach
• Voting article/resources
• Voting designs and communications
• NASW Macro Day organization and implementation
• Meetings
  • Mental Health Task Force
  • Environmental 
  • Affordable Housing 
  • Public Meeting
  • Voting
• Trainings
  • One-to-ones
  • Leadership
  • Excel
  • EDI

James Massey

1. Summarize what you learned through issue research you did.

Something I was very surprised to find was the amount of rural mental health resources that exist in the Chippewa Valley. The Dunn County Mental Health resource page on their website is extensive and very well-organized, leading me to believe that utilizing mental health resources is more of a stigma issue than one of lack of access. I think that, much like the resource pages in more urban areas, these resource pages could be very beneficial if more individuals were simply open to talking about some of these topics and willing to share their resources. 

I also learned that school districts are hesitant or even disinterested in the implementation of new policies. Through our modes of contact and the individuals we had been in touch with, it seemed to be the case that our approach was relatively ineffective. Instead of going through the resources we had initially believed to be the most effective, i.e. guidance counselors, social workers, and principals, I feel other routes of conversation should be explored.

2. Either share some specific policies you learned about that you think someone or jONAH could successfully work to change OR reflect on the JONAH bylaws and handbook.

I find JONAH to accurately reflect what is written in the handbook. It is appreciated that the practices of JONAH are so rooted in the foundation that has been laid out, describing many of the social work values I hold. I do have a few criticisms, however, as I feel there is a potential for improvement. I believe that the JONAH board would benefit from more frequent meetings; I feel that bi-monthly may potentially be a bit too much time. I also feel that, while reviewing the JONAH handbook annually is sufficient, this is something that should be periodically brought up and discussed with individual teams. Finally, I feel that the Anti-Racism Policy can be expanded upon: an Anti-Gender and Sexuality Discrimination Policy, as well as elaboration of EDI-based policies, could be very beneficial. 

3. Reflect on the barriers/tensions around 1-to-1 conversations and share a recent experience of what doing one was like.

I think that there were a few barriers that I had in this area. One of the main barriers to performing 1-on-1 conversations was knowing just who to talk to. The idea of just getting to know someone is really a daunting task, keeping in mind how many someones there are to get to know. Would a JONAH member make sense? A community member? A community leader? I think perhaps that the overall task of ‘getting to know someone’ is a bit daunting.

Another barrier I found was determining which work would be most important. Unfortunately, I felt that other work had taken priority over this. It was difficult for me to find time during my day to focus on this because I had felt my time was already taken up with various projects and events we were working on. What I had learned, however, is that it is crucial to form these connections; they are not built in an office over a computer screen. We are much more effective when we have built connections and community is the center focus of what we do.

For my experience, I think that they went well, and they were not too intimidating. The most intimidating aspect is just that initial contact. With the folks that I had met with, the main focus was on getting to know one another, build rapport, and develop trust. Finding common ground and being able to listen more than you talk is key with 1-on-1s. Many of the individuals that I met with were genuinely curious about the work that JONAH engages in; most people do not want to do harm, fight, bicker, and take away from their communities, especially individuals who are close to or affiliated with JONAH.

4. What gaps or barriers in community resources did you see in your work? What are your takeaways? (Dunn County and schools, e.g.)

In short, a lot. I think, however, that communication is one of the primary concerns that I have seen in our community. One example of this is when we went into the Altoona School district to implement the Green Bandana Project, with a grant from Eau Claire County to do so. We had presented to the SAFE group, an organization that was sponsored by the county. The individuals from the county were very upset that they were not included, although the same government entity that allowed them into schools was doing the same for us; the tension had come about simply because of poor communication from a government entity.

5. What work did you successfully accomplish? Bullet list ok.

This is really hard to answer because I’m not sure how to summarize the work we did. I will bullet a few highlights:

• JONAH Film Festival
• Tabling events such as UWEC Macro Day, Field Day, Voter Engagement, etc.,
• Beginning the logistics of JONAH Art Event

We were also able to start the conversation with many school districts in the Chippewa Valley surrounding the Green Bandana Project and mental health policy for kids. We were able to get into Altoona Middle and High School, as well as the sixth grade class in Lake Holcombe. Macro-level Social Work can be very difficult to definitively declare a win, but I think being able to talk to youth as well as being able to voice our opinions that current policy isn’t effective is certainly a success.

6. What work do you need someone to continue that you started? What do they need from you to do that?

We need to continue our work with the Green Bandana Project. I strongly believe that we are able to get this into more schools and have a wider reach with this if we continue reaching out to schools, continue conversations that have already been started, and continue to lean into the relationships built at some of the schools we were able to talk with. I am also of the opinion that, even though there was pushback, the Mental Health Task Force needs a subcommittee for this as it takes up the majority of their time.

I, personally, would love for someone to expand on the EDI material I have developed for the JONAH board. I think there is a lot of potential to further EDI understanding and I was only able to hit a few of the topics I would like to. I think elaborating on Gender Identity, Anti-Racism, minority cultural expression, etc , would be incredibly beneficial for JONAH members to better understand.

7. Self-Care: reflect on self care in this work and share tips

• Try a new restaurant, especially one you are afraid to try
• Stay organized
• Put yourself outside of your comfort zone, but don’t be afraid to go back to comfort when you are overwhelmed 
• Get enough sleep
• Do not take anything personally; nothing is personal

This work is exhausting, to be frank. It is hard to measure success in community organizing, it is exhausting to be so involved with the community, and it is discouraging to try to do such important work and not get a response. We need to take care of ourselves if we want to take care of our communities. It is important to be mindful that everyone is doing their best with what they are able to do and the tools they are given. If community-level work was easy to do, we wouldn’t need to put so much work into it.