MACRO PROJECT!

So as part of your first year, you are expected to look for the gaps within your placement/ agency. During the first semester we had to write a paper stating a problem within our agency and how we proposed to fix the problem. In the second semester you are given an assignment which is referred to as the Marco project, it sounds harder then it is. Anyways, my macro project was providing services to adolescents. My agency is a family base agency that works primarily with children 0-5. What I noticed during my time at the agency is that little attention is focused on adolescents and that many of the families we serve contain adolescents. What I also noticed was that there was much attention in the media and in the area on gang violence, school violence and family violence amongst adolescent children. After examining the need within the agency and the area, I thought to myself that it might be useful to start a teen violence group. This process start in the beginning of January and took a lot of planning and implementation. We had to first assess/convience the community that this was a need that they should be concerned about. My partner and I went to community meetings to talk about the problem and acquired a list of possible parents who would be interested in enrolling their children in this program. We also need to gain support from the community service center. In order for us to service the community we would need a space within the center to provide our services. This process took well over a month. We had trouble communicating with individuals, gaining a space and distributing flyers. All we wanted to do was start a group and before we could do that we had to jump through so many hoops but I guess that's how it goes! Eventually we gained consent, establish a place and submitted flyers amongst the community. After all of this my fear was that no one would show up. We had been warned that community members need incentive to participate and all we had was food. On the first day of our group I was really worried that I would fail and that no one would show up. After 15 mins, when no one showed up I panicked! Eventually, kids arrived and my fear subsided for a minute, then I realized I would have to provide these kids with an interesting group and hope they would return. To make a long story short, the group went well and the children appeared to enjoy themselves. It appears to be a success and all my fears have subsided. Now it's about enjoying the process and examining what their needs are. When listening to the children, I realized that all of the hard work and struggles were worth it because in the end, these children have an outlet to express themselves. At the end of our first session, one child stated that he wished we could stay longer. He was glad that we were there but that he wished the group was going to be around for a longer time. My hope is that the group will grow and hopefully what my partner and I started will grow into a program that will help the children with in this community.