Rescue Mission Update 11/12

I have been at the shelter for a few weeks now and time has flown by. I blogged last week about a project I had been working on and this week is no different. I met with the executive director of Gospel Rescue Mission and we brainstormed ideas for the brochure. One thing I learned from that meeting is the term “branding” in a company. Every company is recognized by their logo but more specifically color, fonts, and phrases. When you see a providence sign you don’t even have to read the sign to recognize the organization. Similarly, when you see a green symbol you can recognize Starbucks a mile away. The shelter is trying to have the similar approach. To get their name out there and to have members of the community recognize them and their visions they are working on unifying what gets sent out the public. The mission sends out flyers, brochures, emails, newsletters, etc to the community and they are working to make everything branded. Their specific colors are red and purple and they use cobalt font. Their logo is included on everything sent out and has a short statement about the mission and has the same colors and fonts. When I am working on my brochure to raise money for the shelter, I have to keep in mind the companies “brand”. This week my goal was to have the brochure close to finished so next week the brochure will be done, the letters/ contracts to give the businesses will be done, and I am planning on meeting with an owner of a bank to start out! I am excited to bridge the gap between the community and the shelter. It will be exciting to see all the work I have been putting into this project pay off at the benefit in January.

On another note, this week at the shelter they needed a staff member on duty to supervise. It was a great experience to be in charge of what was going on. I learned a lot of leadership skills in leading people older than myself that I can use in my job as a nurse; in nursing I will have to direct people older than me what to do while in the hospital and at home. It was great to talk and get to know some of the people staying there and help people fill out FAFSA, find rides to where they need to go, and figure out solutions to situations some of them are in. It is encouraging to see someone get back on their feet in a matter of a few days, job and apartment included.  Since Thanksgiving is coming up, a lot of work is going into preparing meals and getting blankets for the holiday. This is why it is crucial to start involving the community with donations and partially why I am going out into the community this week.

This was what the last week or so has looked like for me, excited to see how the upcoming weeks turn out as the semester wraps up! I hope to fulfill my learning objectives, so far so good! :)