Sloan Talbot

Today marks the end of my internship at Families Moving Forward. It’s been quite a whirlwind these past few weeks, from introductions and finding my place, to the heart of programming and surveying, to concluding my last week of team meetings and supervision with my boss, I’m sad to see it all end. Overall I have loved my time at FMF, it was genuinely an eye-opening and encouraging start to my professional career and if anything it left me excited for what is to come post-Duke. During my final supervision the other day my boss asked me what are some things I’ve learned, and I immediately said, “you can do a whole lot with a little”. Non-profit work is not a cake walk. It’s hard, challenging, underfunded, and there’s always a need. However, some of my best moments during programming, or watching the other staff work with the residents was when it was a simple activity, or discussion but the residents were given attention, an audience to voice their thoughts, and the staff were there to listen and to engage.

Doing “good” work doesn’t require a whole lot of resources. Yes, resources make it easier (and I urge anyone whose reading this who has time on their hands, old toys, or extra toiletries to find a shelter near you to volunteer or donate at). But, you can really do a lot, with a little; it’s the quality of time spent working on problems, helping families, or even listening to someone that doesn’t require  tons of resource, money, or a 50 person staff.

With my time spent “on the ground” I’ve caught a glimpse of the day to day of real people experiencing homelessness with their families. I’ve seen the victories of getting a house, or a job, and I’ve also seen the people “stuck” in a cycle of generational poverty that they can’t seem to shake. My time at FMF has been informative, and amazing. I’m not sure if I can say for certain that I want to be doing this as a career, I do want to be involved (and will be coming back to the shelter in the fall to offer teen programming as a volunteer). I do know that I now want to delve into the policies and practices side of things, who makes the rules, decisions, and laws and more importantly for whose benefit? I feel like I’ve come sort of full circle, from experiencing homelessness as a young adult, fast forwarding three years later to me interning at a homeless shelter and working with that same age population, my time this summer has been both good for me professionally, but also on a personal level. I’m sad to leave FMF, the wonderful staff who are so hardworking and diligent who take pride in the little wins of the day and work to overcome the challenges families face as best they can with the resources they have from federal and private donors.

I’m excited to see what’s next for me, I know now that I love programming and I find the work of a nonprofit rewarding, worthwhile, and exciting. I’m unsure if this will lead me to continue this path of direct service, or try and see if I can do some good on the broader policy side of things. I am certain that I want to continue to aim for law school, with the idea of obtaining a MSW (Masters in Social Work) alongside it sounding more appealing the longer I think on it. Six weeks is not enough time to truly delve into the day to day and lives of people experiencing homelessness, and in no way to truly understand the inner workings of the staff and agency that support those families at FMF. The taste I have gotten however, has been enough for me to realize that this is the type of work that makes me passionate, and for now provides me purpose.

So long for now,

Sloan

With a little less than two weeks to go at Families Moving Forward, I’m feeling sad to leave. It may be truly cliche to say this, but time has flown by during my internship. I feel like it was just last week that I started my first day here, a slurry of new faces and new routines.

One of my fears upon starting this internship was the common assumption that a lot of “adult” jobs feel monotonous. The hustle of the “9-5” desk job with your eyes glued to a screen and the occasional 30 min lunch breaks of freedom. However, this internship has really been nothing like that, in the best way possible. Sitting in on team and event meetings, helping guests at the shelter during the evenings, and connecting them to resources in the area via emails and texts, my internship has been “hands-on” and engaging in every possible way. The best part though, is that this is truly a serious career field.  People who are full time staff here get to come in at 12 and do desk work, but also do meetings, and brainstorm with co-workers on specific guest issues, and then transition to programming, working with our families directly in the evening. If FMF has taught me one thing, is that adulting in the job world doesn’t all look the same.

Yes, this is most certainly not a corporate organization, job type, or work environment. I wouldn’t classify it as a strictly nonprofit desk job either. There are many people in the workforce who do sit at their desk and answer the phone for donations, and create fundraising events, and work via emails and calls. Perhaps it was dumb luck, or the internship I found myself slotted into, but working here has really been a “little of this, and a little of that” when it comes to what I do with my day to day. I think one of the biggest unexpected takeaways I am going to get from my time here is the wide array of options that are there for working in the nonprofit sector. From development, to hands-on client interactions, to fundraisings, events, advocacy and policy work the nonprofit world is definitely my little oyster.

Resultingly, this makes my imminent life transition out of college more daunting since I have more choices and paths than I ever thought possible; but it’s also reassuring to realize that there’s more than the corporate vs. nonprofit career paths. At the end of the day I always get excited for programming time, seeing my teens or the school-age students I get to work with is the best part, because it’s the direct engagement that I love so much. I can do research and send quick emails, and help craft events but I’m finding out this summer that I want, or honestly need to have direct access to clients and people when I am working. With the remaining time I have left here at FMF I am hosting a budgeting workshop for the teens at the shelter to learn how to manage a bank account, I helped to craft a cardboard bridge for our Girl Scout Troop to use for their bridging ceremony, and I’m still contacting and receiving surveys from families who’ve completed our AfterCare programs. I’m doing a little bit of everything, and I’m loving it.

Sloan Talbot is a rising senior from Ypsilanti, Michigan majoring in Cultural Anthropology with a Certificate in Ethics & Society. She is one of seven fellows in the Kenan Purpose Program. 

Sloan is a passionate advocate for greater access to resources for historically disadvantaged groups. At Duke, she is deeply involved in creating a community for first-generation college students. She is hoping to discern whether non-profit work is a possible career avenue for her this summer with Families Moving Forward, an innovative organization supporting families attempting to transition out of homelessness.

It’s been a couple weeks now at Families Moving Forward. I’ve learned everyone’s name in the office, I now when we have meetings, who in the office eats what during lunch, and recognize and have met most of the current guests living here. I also have led a couple of teen breakout sessions on Monday and Wednesday evenings- working through summer job applications and checking-in to see how everyone is doing. I’m reaching out to families who’ve completed the program and 1 year of after-care to see how their lives have been since exiting. My role here at FMF is pretty set, with wiggle room to help out with certain programs or tasks during the day, and to give input during meetings when brainstorming or problem solving is occuring. All in all my version of working at a nonprofit has been a positive one, FMF does amazing work, they provide great resources, give families a plethora of options and networks to be apart of, and they take good care of their volunteers.

Being able to be on the inside of the nonprofit world over the course of these few weeks has shown me just how much goes into the seemingly smooth operations of the day to day here. With the nature of nonprofits, most if not all the money they have to operate is coming from donations, grants, individuals and external forces such as government programs. This also includes people on the FMF staff, some who are on payroll directly through the organization, while others like myself who are being funded through external factors, such as fellowships, internship requirements for MSW (Masters of Social Work) students, and government funded opportunities like AmeriCorps members.

With this external funding, there comes a little bit of a snafu- there’s a lot of red-tape. Certain staff who have certain funding have to do certain things. They are ultimately responsible for the task set out under their funding, their time constrictions of when they can work and how much can they work are set up entirely by external factors. This makes the role of staff, and management a tough one; balancing not only the “to-do’s” of the center- what needs to be done and has to be done, with the stipulations of external forces, outlines and rules that dictate who must do what, when they must do it, and how they have to record and prove they have done it. It doesn’t make the work impossible, but it certainly has given me a new appreciation for the work of the management team, and my boss included here at FMF.

I guess this is the reality of nonprofit administration, and management. It’s not something completely apparent if you are a volunteer here or follow-up on the orgs work, because everything does get accomplished. However, the sweet balancing act that must be done in order to make sure all are appeased is something that must occur almost daily on the back-end of the work. I’m still extremely content at the work I am doing here at FMF, but I guess my naivety is slowly shrinking away when I am realizing just how much work there has to be done. In order to run a nonprofit, there are the tasks at hand when it comes to helping the current guests at the shelter and fulfilling FMF’s mission, but the reality of how nonprofits are financed, get support, and operate requires a lot of patience, navigation, and cutting of red-tape. My current task in the office is talking to all the employee’s and staff to figure out their roles here, and I hope through conversations I’ll be able to learn just a little bit more of the back-end management of nonprofit operations.

Sloan Talbot is a rising senior from Ypsilanti, Michigan majoring in Cultural Anthropology with a Certificate in Ethics & Society. She is one of seven fellows in the Kenan Purpose Program. 

Sloan is a passionate advocate for greater access to resources for historically disadvantaged groups. At Duke, she is deeply involved in creating a community for first-generation college students. She is hoping to discern whether non-profit work is a possible career avenue for her this summer with Families Moving Forward, an innovative organization supporting families attempting to transition out of homelessness.

It’s my second week here at FMF and I’m finally starting to do some of the things I was hired to do as a program intern, which is exciting! Last week was a lot of getting my “sea legs;” finding my way around the office, remembering faces and then names of co-workers and current guests at The Nest, learning which key goes to which door (and at FMF, there are a lot of keys…everywhere). After helping out where needed, and figuring my way around the place and the rhythm of FMF, this week marks my first week of self-led programming!

Tonight, I am hosting a board game event for the teen residents at The Nest, during the normal evening programming. I made some fun flyers, and am bringing in some snacks with the hopes that they want to spend an hour of their time with me, the new- slightly awkward intern. While I’m only 21, I definitely feel a slight disconnect from the teens at the Nest, something that I’ve never had before. I think I attribute it to my position now as an “adult” of sorts; with a lanyard and keys and a name-badge to separate me as a working member of the staff. I’m sure in the future this will only be more commonplace, me being in the “adult space” and trying to connect with teenagers and young adults.

There are only five teens currently residing in the shelter, and with the constant fluctuation (as guests end their stay after 90 days) programming can be a bit tricky to create a long-lasting series of activities, and have participation. However, I am hopeful that by starting off with some light games and fun, I can ease into what the teens actually want to do and learn about during the course of my time here at FMF, along with theirs. My plan is to start the more formal programming next week, either talking about college apps and summer jobs, or how to stay healthy through meditation, mindful eating habits, and outdoor outings…depending on what the teens seem inclined towards.

My other part of my job, working with the after-care families and checking in on how they’ve been has yet to start. One thing I’ve realized about FMF is that it’s a great organization, but there’s an ever-lasting need for more hands on deck, more help, more resources…just more in general. I think this is kind of what the nonprofit world is like in a nutshell, because of the nature of the job, there Is always a lot to do, but not a lot of resources in order to get those things done. I know my boss has been extremely busy getting me and a couple other interns for the summer properly trained and welcomed to the team, but I am hoping that at our weekly check-in we will be able to get the ball rolling on the research aspect of my time at FMF.

That’s all I got for now…

Sloan Talbot is a rising senior from Ypsilanti, Michigan majoring in Cultural Anthropology with a Certificate in Ethics & Society. She is one of seven fellows in the Kenan Purpose Program. 

Sloan is a passionate advocate for greater access to resources for historically disadvantaged groups. At Duke, she is deeply involved in creating a community for first-generation college students. She is hoping to discern whether non-profit work is a possible career avenue for her this summer with Families Moving Forward, an innovative organization supporting families attempting to transition out of homelessness.

It’s my first official week at FMF and I honestly couldn’t be more excited about what the summer holds. Yesterday, when I walked into the office for the first day I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. I worked from 12-8pm, and while I’ve never been on a work shift for 8 hours before, the time flew by. First off, my boss for the summer is a remarkable woman. I walked into FMF just as she was zipping between meetings, yet she still made time to sit down, and go over my summer plans, what the internship will look like, and offered me the invite to sit in on her team meeting later that afternoon. After the team meeting, where I got to formally introduce myself to some of my coworkers for the summer, as well as hear about each of their projects and current tasks they are working on, FMF programming started.

Programming for FMF is one of the major components to their model of emergency shelter and care for homeless families. They have programming Monday-Thursday from 6:30-7:30, in which they have separate events, lessons, and activities for adults, teenagers, adolescents, toddlers, and even babies to do. My supervisor is the head honcho of this, overseeing not only the volunteers from varying religious based groups and locals who come to serve dinner, or help out with the children programming, but also helping to get speakers and programs for the parents and adults living in the shelter to participate in. Last night, she brought over a representative from Durham Tech, the local community college in the city to discuss workforce options, technical skills classes, GED completion, and college courses to the parents and teens.

After being in FMF during the day, and getting a glimpse of what the office team does, I was also able to see the programming at night. I was put in the baby room yesterday, helping to watch children 0-2 years old in one of FMF’s playrooms, while their parents and guardians attended the Durham Tech info session. I honestly couldn’t have been happier. I love working with kids, and one of the reasons I wanted to be at FMF was that I wanted to get a feel for how a nonprofit runs on the day to day, but also get to work with families hands-on, talking to guests, helping out with programming, and assisting volunteers who bring meals, or donations. Yesterday was the perfect combination of that, and I am doing the same for the rest of this week. I’m excited that my summer schedule will be giving me a mix of this, since not only did it make the time fly by at the end of the day, it also is something that is “right up my alley.”

In the future, I’ll be incorporating a research component for my daytime tasks at FMF, talking to families who have left the shelter, completed their 12 months of after-care with a FMF staff member. I’ll be seeing where these families are at now, how they are doing, and what they thought about their experiences as a whole both during, and after their stay at FMF. The goal is to use these interviews to see what new policies or programming can FMF do to strengthen their aftercare, including the possibility of extending the time of aftercare, to providing more programming, or other wishes former guests would like to see in place. I also will be a steady force in the baby room during evening programming, but also will be volunteering with the girl scout troop that meets on the weekends, as well as helping to coordinate some teenage-appropriate programming so that they don’t always have to be lumped into the adult workshops. I’m excited for what’s to come next, but so far, it’s been pretty good.  

Sloan Talbot is a rising senior from Ypsilanti, Michigan majoring in Cultural Anthropology with a Certificate in Ethics & Society. She is one of seven fellows in the Kenan Purpose Program. 

Sloan is a passionate advocate for greater access to resources for historically disadvantaged groups. At Duke, she is deeply involved in creating a community for first-generation college students. She is hoping to discern whether non-profit work is a possible career avenue for her this summer with Families Moving Forward, an innovative organization supporting families attempting to transition out of homelessness.

I officially start at Families Moving Forward this coming Monday the 22nd, and I’m not really sure what to expect of it. A little background on me; I’m a rising senior at Duke studying Cultural Anthropology with a minor in Political Science, and a Certificate in Experiential Ethics. Originally from Ypsilanti Michigan, I’m a first-generation (1G) college student whose passionate about studying the effects of displacement and migration, and investigating individuals’ articulations of home. I think law school is in my future, with a gap-year, or two in-between, focusing on refugee rights and resettlement, as well as providing access to higher education and resources for low-income, and 1G students. Upon moving out of my college dorm, and into my summer apartment this week, it’s been eerily quiet and peaceful. I’m definitely starting to fidget with wanting something to do, so Monday comes at a good time.

Families Moving Forward, or FMF, which is how I’ll likely refer to it throughout these posts, is a temporary homeless shelter and advocacy center for homeless families in Durham, NC. It’s nonprofit that came to be from the merging of two organizations that worked with the homeless population of Durham, Genesis Home, and Durham Interfaith Hospitality Network, in 2016. FMF provides short-term housing and services to families experiencing homelessness, without separating families by gender or age, or by putting limitations on who can live there, an unusual way of operating a homeless shelter.

I’m excited to be working with FMF because my family experienced homelessness when I was in high school, and those eight months of unknowing, uncertainty, and living in the “in-between” was not only a hard experience for me, but a transformative one. I want to work with students like me who are experiencing homelessness currently, hoping to impart advice, or just be a friend during their time at FMF.

So what will I actually be doing at FMF? I have two mini-projects that I am working on; one is with their after-care program, and another is helping out during their evening programming for high schoolers who currently reside at “The Nest”, their name for the shelter. With after-care at FMF, families are given a case-worker for one year who regularly meets and checks-in with families who have successfully moved out of FMF to permanent housing. This after-care is to make sure families are on the right track, can find stable employment and day-care for their children, and will not be at-risk for returning to homelessness. My role at FMF will be to visit families who have completed their 1 year of after-care and see how they are doing, their thoughts on the program, and if that after-care needs to be further expanded. My second mini-project will be helping out with evening programming for high school residents of the Nest in whatever capacity I can, as a volunteer, helper, or if they’ll listen, a mentor.

I’m both excited and unsure of how this next will go. This is my first time being on the “other end” of homelessness, not the recipient of these services, but in a small capacity, the giver. I am excited to be with FMF to see the business side of their work, and what it’s like to be in a non-profit. Hopefully, this summer will clue me into if I actually enjoy working in non-profits in the day-to-day rather than simply saying I would, without having experience in one. I’m also excited to be in Durham this summer, and seeing what the Bull City is like outside of the “Duke Bubble”. I’m overall ready to jump into the work at FMF, and feel out this potential career path.

Sloan Talbot is a rising senior from Ypsilanti, Michigan majoring in Cultural Anthropology with a Certificate in Ethics & Society. She is one of seven Kenan Purpose Program Summer Fellows. 

Sloan is a passionate advocate for greater access to resources for historically disadvantaged groups. At Duke, she is deeply involved in creating a community for first-generation college students. She is hoping to discern whether non-profit work is a possible career avenue for her this summer with Families Moving Forward, an innovative organization supporting families attempting to transition out of homelessness.