About two years ago Donald was completing his social work undergrad and needed an internship. He searched and searched for jobs and began to give up hope when he stumbled upon Emergency Shelter of Northern Kentucky. He felt an instant connection with them and knew he made the right choice. His journey started here, but the limits for his future touched the stars.
Prior to working his first internship as an advocate at ESNKY, homelessness for Donald was an abstract idea. He saw it in books and movies but he still viewed it as a concept, not something that shines into your actual life. By working at the shelter, Donald uncovered the ugly truth about homelessness.
“It’s more than going without shelter; you need nice clothes to do well in a job interview. You need an ID to fill out the paperwork for a job, you need extra funds to afford a bus pass or a car to transport you to and from a job. You need all of these things to get out of the hole and with each step up the ladder you new barriers appear to slip you up.”
As an advocate intern, Donald met the basic needs of the guests. He said that many other organizations focus so much on providing guests with food and water they lose track of providing the basic human need of fellowship. ESNKY is a unique organization because it delegates extra time for its advocates to provide a personal touch to let the guests know that this is a safe and friendly environment. Donald said that this was one of the reasons he loved working with ESNKY because,
“Sometimes the best thing you can do for someone is to sit and talk with them.”
In order to diversify his experience, Donald worked with a for-profit mental health organization. The organization possessed none of the humanizing experience that the ESNKY strives to provide, making him miss working at the shelter. Due to not seeing eye to eye on several things, he stopped working there and decided to look for a different place to learn his craft. The stars aligned for him and ESNKY offered him another internship during his final year of grad school. This allowed him to come back to where many viewed as the doorstep to find a home.
In his second internship, he assisted the Men’s Work Program coordinator, helping guests set goals that they applied in their week going forward. He showed them how to save money and provided for their food and clothing needs. He drew up plans for how to acquire transportation and demonstrated how to verify their employment to stay in the work program. In short, he taught them how to transform themselves into self-reliant citizens who support themselves, which is the goal of the Men’s Work Program.
While working at ESNKY, he returned to his roots at the shelter and talked to the guests making sure that they felt comfortable and found everything that they needed. He also filled in any gaps that Covid-19 ripped into the volunteer schedule. Through it all, he always remembered to be mindful because he knew his worst day would seem easy in the eyes of one of the guests.
By:
Emily Broyles
2021 Scripps Howard Communication Intern