Becoming a Case Worker

Many things happened this week at work. I made it to another court with Kerry on Monday and Tuesday I went to two courts (sort of). On Monday Ann K’s dad came over for dinner, and it happened to be his birthday so Ann made delicious cupcakes. Tuesday morning I went to the building where there is immigration court but we ended up in an office that was not technically court. But now I know where to get there, which is great because I’ll probably have to go there again later in the month. Tuesday afternoon we went to the Daley Center (which is where a. they had the German Christmas festival we went to in December and b. I went on the solo accompaniment to traffic court last Friday). This time we were on the 28^th floor (much better view) for a foreclosure case. My roommates picked me up from work on Tuesday and we went straight to Mercy House, where there is another volunteer program structured like ours but they only have one house and all work for the same agency that has something to do with youth group homes. There are fourteen of them in our house and they were very eager to meet new volunteers and expand their social circle. We had a blast (they made us meatballs…so great) and got to know them and they showed us how to properly restrain youth when they fight. It takes two people for every youth involved in the fight. They had just learned this that day as a part of their job orientations. We stayed until 10:00, which is pretty late for us on a week night (how quickly I have become my mother…) but even the people that wake up at 5:00 agreed it was worth it.

                Wednesday was a big day because I started taking my own appointments by myself. I saw two whole clients. One I referred to the Mexican consulate and another I scheduled for a follow-up appointment. Neither were in my office very long and the rest of the day was pretty slow, but that won’t last too long. Since school is just starting, people are busy with that and will start coming back into the office soon. And, some of the other case workers are starting to transfer some of their caseload to me since they have lots of people. Thursday we had an all-staff meeting (we don’t have a huge staff, we all fit around a table). I know certain members of my family have had bad experiences working with nuns in the past, but I work with three and they are fabulous. Before we start meetings, we go around and share one or two words that reflect the state of our hearts and then, without judgment, share why we chose the words we did. How many bosses care about that? The rest of the day I went around with Jeanine, our MSW intern who actually was with us last semester as well, to a few different agencies and shelters where we tend to refer clients so we would know where we were sending them. The most interesting was the Pacific Garden Mission, an evangelical Baptist mission where people living in the shelter can enroll in a year-long bible study program. Our tour guide was enrolled in the program and told us how in living there, he discovered his gift for preaching. He demonstrated this throughout the tour and it ended up being much longer than I thought it would be. But, although I would never want to go through that program, it seems to work especially well for people who are homeless due to addictions because their new-found religion can keep them sober. I cringed every time he mentioned the architect of the building was Jewish (at one point he said “our Hebrew brothers” and I thought for a second he said “our heathen brothers” and almost threw a fit) but then he mentioned that his father was Jewish, so we had something in common.

Friday we didn’t have any receptionists so Sr Kathy put me in charge. Sr Theresa had a few appointments and I did get to take a walk-in (Sr Theresa took a turn at the reception desk) and was able to schedule a couple of appointments for myself on Monday and an accompaniment for Thursday. I’m excited about that one because we do not schedule appointments for Thursdays or take walk-ins, and since I don’t have much paperwork to catch up on or clients to follow-up with, that accompaniment will make the day go by much faster.

Saturday I finally took advantage of my membership at the Art Institute (thanks Uncle Mike and Aunt Carla) and took my roommate Michelle. We even got some free coffee at the member lounge and sat in the member-exclusive part of the garden on the lower level. After that we met up with a bunch of other Amate people and most of the Mercy Works volunteers in McKinley Park and played flag football. We actually had so many people that we had two games. After that I went with some roommates to the Taste of Greece Festival in Greektown, where we learned a few different types of Greek dancing and had some delicious Greek food. It was a great day, but I was glad to come home to my bed. I was even more glad to find that the mariachi band outside my window (the second in two weeks) had stopped playing for the night so I could actually go to sleep. Today (Sunday) is pretty chill so far, my roommates all went to a Jesuit Mass at St. Procopius in Pilsen but I’m waiting to go to Spanish Mass at 6:00 by our house. I think a lot of our clients go to that church, so it would be nice to make my face familiar to them.

Taller de Jose (my service site) is doing a fundraising campaign, I’ll probably be posting the details this week. If you are in Chicago, you can register for $5 and get a t-shirt to wear while you are running/walking around the city. If you aren’t in the area, you can donate money to someone (like me) who is collecting pledges. This will not be the only time this year I will be asking you for money donations, so don’t feel like you have to give me too much right now.