Personal Advocacy Reflection

I find it quiet helpful to be able to assist others with connecting with local resources and services. Information can be at our finger tips yet some need a little bit of extra assistance and or  guidance getting to what it is he or she needs.

I can recall a situation in which a teen mom that I was working with had a need for childcare. It was important that she had childcare because she was still a student in high school and did not have much family support to assist her in caring for her daughter during the day while she was at school.

I transported her to the local department of social service building and we grabbed a number and waited until her number was called. Once called she had to go to the back and speak to a case worker and complete an orientation and was informed of the program guidelines and the process of obtaining a childcare voucher.

In the meantime the young lady and I called around to childcare facilities to find out if they had any openings, or how long the waiting list would be. Some locations she was able to complete an application to have on file for when her voucher from dss became active she could use it.

The process proved to be long and sometimes disappointing however to see the look on her face the day she received the call that she had received the child care voucher sounded like music to my ears, it was through the efforts and hard work that in the end proved to be successful.