Reflecting on the First Shift

Today, I started my volunteer placement at SEARCH in Regina. SEARCH is an acronym that stands for Student Energy in Action for Regina Community Health. It is a student-run facility that provides programming to the community of Regina. They are an “informal, drop-in clinic, which also provides healthy snacks and beverages, childcare, and a warm and safe environment” to people who need it.

For my first shift, I was in childcare with three other student volunteers. The first while of my shift was very relaxed, there had been no clients to come in that had children with them. We had been planned to bookmarks as a craft for the day. I had made a sample bookmark of my own to show the kids when they got there for something to work off of. I ended up making two bookmarks and a bracelet out of some string. The clinic was very quiet outside of a few clients enjoying their lunches and then all of a sudden, BOOM, 5 girls come through the door and come right up to me and the other students and started into the crafts. For a solid hour and a half, it was all these girls doing crafts, blowing up balloons and braiding string to make bookmarks and bracelets. It was pretty hectic because each one of the girls was doing their own thing and there was only 4 of us to help them and supervise them. After the girls left, the clinic was quiet again and there was clean up to do before the debriefing meeting.

Overall, the experience today was a very enjoyable one. I met new students, spent time with some interesting and funny children as well as to talk to others and learn more about them. I was blown away by one of the projects that went on last week, there was beading and moccasin making. Today, one of the clients was helping a student volunteer work on her project. From previous classes I have been able to take in university and personal interest in other parts of indigenous culture I was incredibly interested in the project. In talking to the client that was helping my fellow student volunteer, she explained the relaxation associated with the beading and the creating of art involved in the beading. I loved being able to get first-hand information from such an open and helpful source.

Any new experience is a chance for expanding one’s horizons and to see life from a new perspective. Going further into this placement I hope to be able to see new perspectives and be able to orientate myself better to new ways of thinking and seeing the world. I am excited for what is to come in the rest of this placement with SEARCH.