Week of May 2, 2011

From Cinda:

Monday, a wonderful day at the Gender Center.  Met with clients, did data entry, tried to locate all the LGBT bookstores in the Denver Metro area, lots of little things, but I was enjoying all of it.

Tuesday, in to see two clients today!

Wednesday, this is becoming my DAP note day. But caught up again, and still need to get that blasted toner.  When you're a student you can handle one issue at a time, like needing toner, but add in a paper due for class, and then the time I need to get the toner disappears!  Grumble...

Week of April 25, 2011

From Cinda:

Monday was a pretty usual day at the Gender Center with clients and some time to spend with the volunteers.  All in all, a very enjoyable day.  Coursework is picking up as we enter the second half of the quarter, which adds its own stress to the picture, but it's nice to know that the end of the first year is quickly approaching.

Tuesday I came in to do an intake, and then met with another client before heading off to class.

Wednesday it was DAP note day!  Now I just need to pick up toner again so I can print!  The tribulations of being a student.

Thursday I wasn't able to go in as there was stuff going on at school.  I missed it!

Week of April 18, 2011

From Cinda: 

Monday, I came in and did the usual start up routine—unforward the phone, check for voice messages, logged in on the volunteer spreadsheet, signed in and filled out my card…  Then it's time to eat before I start seeing clients.  Trying to find a way to eat lunch when I'm taking the bus from campus to the Gender Center is a trick.  It can't really be done, so I have to garb something here as fast as I can.

Wednesday it was DAP notes time!  I'm getting better at taking notes when I'm with a client, which means I have more to do when I write up the DAP notes.  Doing the notes is teaching me a lot.

Thursday it's back to the GIC.  I had a wonderful time talking to Stephanie and our terrific volunteers.  We're starting to get a few inquires about volunteering so I hope that will pick up once we get to the end of the school quarter, semester, year…

Saturday I looked over the DAP notes and added a few things that reading them sparked.  Also went looking for LGBT bookstores to see if we can post flyers there for volunteers.

Week of April 11, 2011

From Cinda:

Monday, I started the morning with a chat with Karen and Anne, then a missed appointment at 12:30.  I was able to get the blog updated and looked over stuff for my meeting with Joan on Thursday.  We also had a brief moment of panic when we couldn't fine our data, but that was quickly resolved.

Tuesday I was in to see a client for an hour, then off to class!

Wednesday was DAP note day!  These get easier to do with time.

Thursday I was only back at the Gender Center to meet with Karen and my field liaison, the last meeting for this year, which is kind of scary.  It's almost over, and I know I am going to miss it.  The folks here are really wonderful and I will miss the staff, volunteers and clients.  Luckily I will be able to spend some of my summer here!

Week of April 4, 2011

From Cinda:

Monday, I met with Karen to do some supervision, then saw my first clinical client to do some case management.  That was followed by an intake.  So, lots of clinical work for the start of this week!  We also had a drop in, and a wonderful volunteer, and very little time for me to try and e-mail everyone about their volunteer hours this week.  I think we might need to have the volunteer(s) on Monday do the contact to the other volunteers about their hours… I was back in the evening for the open group.

Tuesday, I did my DAP notes for the two clients yesterday, scanned in the March data, and updated the blog.

Wednesday, I read over my DAP notes and added a little more.  I also finished the flyer to send out to schools and churches and e-mailed it off to everyone on the list that I had an e-mail for.  Now I need to find a way to fax it to the departments, and mail it to some of the churches…

Thursdays, back at the GIC for a clinical meeting at 10:30.  Our PsyD student had clinical appointments, so I manned the front desk with a volunteer until 3:30, when I had another intake, too.  Wow!  It's exciting to see the clinical services taking off!

Week of March 28, 2011

From Cinda:

Monday I met with a professor before coming to the Gender Center.  The RTD is great here in Denver, but sometimes it's a pain, like today.  It took way too long to get here!  I sent out to the volunteers signed up for this week.  Worked on the volunteer recruitment, and did some data entry.

Wednesday I tried to find e-mails for locations where I could only find a fax number or address easily.  And I had very little luck.  It seems very odd to me that departments in colleges and universities do not have a contact e-mail listed on their contact web page!  And churches, why in the world don't they have an e-mail listed?

Thursday, back to the GIC.  I was able to sit in on an in-take and that was really helpful.  I will be seeing my first client on Monday.  I also did some data entry, spent some time talking with Karen and doing more volunteer recruitment.

Week of March 21, 2011

From Cinda:

Monday was back to classes for me, and back to the GIC.  Karen and I did supervision and I updated the blog.  We developed a plan for me to start doing some intakes, and then work with a client or two.  We're also going to try and beef up the volunteer program, which means I will be doing some recruitment work at schools, churches, and in the community.

Tuesday Kate, Karen, Anne and I attended a lecture at GSSW on a new intervention to help prevent homelessness.  CTI (Critical Time Intervention) is a 9-month long highly intensive intervention by a CTI caseworker with a homeless client.  I'm not sure there is good application for issues of homelessness in the transgender community, but what I thought was interesting was the fact that the model sort of looks like the clinical case management that we're doing at the Gender Center.  I think the idea behind the model might be useful as we think about the services we provide.

Wednesday I put together an e-mail and then sent it out to several departments at DU, inviting students who were interested to volunteer at the Gender Center between April and August.  We'll see if we get any bites.  Next it will be time to send that e-mail out to folks at Metro, CU Denver, and other schools.  I also pulled together a list of welcoming churches and I need to craft a separate message for them.  I also need to get a list of potential places to contact figured out!

I'm now coming in on Thursdays rather than Tuesdays, since one of my spring quarter classes is on Tuesday afternoons.  It's a little odd to be here on a Thursday, but I was able to sit in on an intake to see how that is handled.  This is my observation run before I do it myself.  I also caught up on some of the data entry.  And started hunting up the e-mail addresses for the college departments we want to hit for volunteers.