Stephanie Davis

Journals Weeks 9-14

Week 9 Journal
This week I attended my second meeting for the Sexual Assault Network of Delaware
(SAND). This meeting brings together organizations across the state of Delaware who work
with victims and/or sexual assault. I did not have any expectations in attending the meeting
other than there would be some discussion on what was happening for Sexual Assault Awareness
Month in April.
Throughout the meeting I quickly realized that, though there was an agenda and guest
speakers lined up, there was little organization in keeping the meeting flowing smoothly. Much
of the time was spent hashing out the Bill that the State of Delaware is about to pass relating to
Title IX and universities. In the end, the guest speakers who were asked to attend were rushed
through because time was not managed well enough to give them time to present on their topics.
Overall I was not impressed with how the meeting was run, in fact, if I were attending the
meeting for the first time ever I doubt that I would return.
This week I also took part in a table display at a wellness expo. I have done different table
displays for my organization and found this to be about the same. Leading up to the presentation
I found there to be a great lack in communication from the primary point of contact with Contact
Lifeline and the interns in attendance. This seems to be a standard part of doing anything outside
of the phone shifts with the organization. I find the lack of communication to be quite frustrating
at times.
Week 10 Journal
This week in my placement I worked on trying to finalize the displays throughout the state
for Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM). This project has been especially challenging
since I have had to pick up where another intern left off, and there was not fluidity in the

Stephanie Davis
Journals Weeks 9-14
communication. Also, the Sexual Assault Network of Delaware (SAND) Coordinator who I am
working primarily with did not inform me that she was required to provide the Governors office
with the information on what we were doing. Had I received that information I could have
relayed the need to the community contacts who I am working. This seems to be in line with the
lack of communication that happens a lot with this placement.
This week I am also working on finalizing the submission of awards for two volunteers at
Contact Lifeline. As with most tasks, I have requested the information needed for the awards a
couple of times and have not received it. The scheduling for this task was a little off due to my
having a time where I was set to come in and work all day and the staff I need to work with are
not present until later in the day.
On Saturday I worked at a Womens Expo for the Sexual Assault Network of Delaware
(SAND). There were two interns for this display. Neither one of us started out being sure on
how to present for SAND because we had originally thought we were there for ContactLifeline.
In the end we were able to work through and hopefully made some contacts with people who
would need out services.
Week 11
I have reached the point where I am starting to close out my hours of this internship
placement. For the remainder of the time the only things that I have scheduled are telephone
shifts. In the end I will have completed more hours than are required.
I have started using this time to reflect on the process and thinking about if the process has
been what I expected it to be. I cannot say that I did not learn, but I can say that I did not start
this placement out with the same vision I ended it with. As I have gone along I have wondered
why, since there seem to be a lot of interns rotating through this agency, there is not a clearer

Stephanie Davis
Journals Weeks 9-14
process on the expectations for interns. I think that ContactLifeline could benefit from an
internship manual that would help guide through the time.
Often I have felt confused by the expectations and even who I was completing work for. I
worked most closely with the Sexual Assault Network of Delaware (SAND) Coordinator.
SAND is a grant that is owned by ContactLifeline but does not actually work as representation
for ContactLifeline. As a result, when I would do community work I would be confused on what
I would need to talk about. I would eventually find a rhythm for this.
I will be using my remaining telephone shifts to decide if this is actually something that I
want to continue to volunteer with. Having volunteered in the past under a different status, I
now have a better understanding of the agency and am not sure that I want to continue giving my
time here.
Week 12
This week I attended a listener meeting at ContactLifeline. While I did not count these
hours towards my placement, I wanted to attend because the representative for Delaware in the
Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) was a guest speaker. There are times where
ContactLifeline receives calls from inmates wanting to report using PREA and we call this
representative to give him the information. What I was missing in the process, like a lot of
listeners, was what the process actually is after a report is made. I found this to be very useful.
I completed my remaining hours this week. I still have two more hotline shifts to work
because I wanted to round out the month. I was also able to talk with the primary point of
contact I have used at ContactLifeline about closing out my internship placement. Before
meeting with her I was concerned that due to the shift in personnel at the agency stuff would get
lost in the transition.

Stephanie Davis
Journals Weeks 9-14
Week 13
This week was a slow week for my internship placement. I have finished my hours and did
not have any telephone shifts scheduled. I did receive a lot of email traffic from people about
Sexual Assault Awareness Month displays, though I had previously passed the information onto
the Sexual Assault Network of Delaware Coordinator. I was able to make contact with her and
she assured me that the displays would be distributed.
My full-time position with the National Guard has a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)
with ContactLifeline. I was able to discuss with my supervisor that I am not sure certain parts of
the MOU were being met. In the time that I have been interning with the agency I have talked
with many of the listeners about the Department of Defense military initiative for sexual assault
and have not encountered one person who knows about this. Part of the MOU is that
ContactLifeline will ensure their listeners are trained about our program. Having sat in on a
training session for new listeners this was never brought up. I had talked to a staff member about
how I go to another agency and present our program to their volunteers. I feel like this is
something that should happen with ContactLifeline as well.
Week 14
My internship has officially closed out. Overall, this experience has certainly been one to
learn from. I feel like I have been able to broaden my horizons into the world of human services
that is not related to the military, which is the area that I am used to working in.
If I could go back, the only real thing that I would change is asking for more clarification on
who I would be working with and what the organization expects from their interns. I think that
an improvement for ContactLifeline would be to have at least a baseline of expectations for their
interns so that it does not seem everyone is on different pages.

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Journals Weeks 9-14
In all, I am happy with the experience and will certainly look at continuing on as a volunteer.
I have been asked to be a support worker during the time that I would be out on maternity leave,
this is something that I am considering. It would allow me to stay engaged in the organization
without actually having to spend time on the phones.