Change

The one thing that I am proud of, well may be not the one things, is that I get to experience such significant and meaningfull change, shift, in my life time. The fact that I am from a different county, reared to fear, to fear government, fear of change, but still having to adapt to change---- this time in my life, the change has been exhilarating. How about you? Have been following the election process, do you feel the change, are you chaged?

Personal life╔nothing much is happening. I have been looking at my retirement/investment plan and I am ready to s**t in my pants. Yes, I am to young to be worried about loss, but when you see your hard earn money lose, it is hard to swallow.

Developing Guideline

I have been working on developing guideline for practice. I really don’t want to talk about it is (not sure if I can), but the process is a learning experience. I have been trying to apply what I have learned in school or in the process of learning.

In order to implement or suggest a change in procedure, I have been talking to different stakeholders at different levels, I have researching for best practice, looking at peer reviewed articles, and off course talking to my supervisor. I have been talking to my supervisor about the guide and what the impact of the change would mean if and when it is implemented. Trying to figure out if there are alternative, or if the current guideline is sufficient is an experience on its own.

Plain Language

I was assigned to develop a “home alone pamphlet.” The intent of the pamphlet is to serve as information for families, so when they decide to leave their children home alone they have some sort of guideline. AZ does not have rule/law/ regulation about leaving children home alone. In my search to develop the pamphlet, I learned that most states do not have age that a child (ren) can be left home alone. I found useful information to guide the pamphlet on the American Academy of Pediatrics, local hospitals, and other states. I have also learned that most of governmental documents or even information provided to the general public follows the simple or plain language. Plain language, from what I understand, it is the avoidance or legal language or use of jargon. The method allows regular folks understand information with out breaking out the legal dictionary or hiring expert to translate simple information. Let me tell you writing simply is harder.

Policy Implementation

In an agency that has thousands of employees and offices, statewide policy implementation is a formidable task. I did not know how formidable it would be until I started to intern; of course, the education also helps. This past week I attended a meeting for the policy unit, the meeting was positive and highlighted some the major laws that have passed and the implementation process for ACYF. The interesting and the more practical aspect of policy making was discussion held about the implementation process and the anticipation of the problems. The discussion highlighted some of the conflict policy adoption and implementation always faces. It is very interesting and a good learning experience to witness the interaction.

Learning blogging

Having issues 

Say Thank You

The other day I had the pleasure of having a one-on-one meeting with the deputy director for ACYF. It was a pleasure because this man has 35 years of experience, and he was not boisterous or vain about his experience. He is retiring from public services this month, and I wanted to say thank you for the few moments he spent with me discussing policy making. I found him to b easy going and easy to approach. Some of the highlights from the meting are: how to work with people from the different aisle, emotional intelligence and what it means to be in position of leadership.

One of the opportunities this internship has given me is the chance to interact with people in different level of leadership positions.