Heya! That time again! For the new folks, this thread is a space to tell us about something fun and cool you have going on, vent about something, or find an ear that you may need. Hope you’ve been well!
Remember, you are loved 
For my own part, while my attention span continues to get worse and worse, im still powering through Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure and trying to keep warm. Pretty nasty out where I’m at, and won’t get better for another week or so. No leads on the job hunt, but I did start looking into nonprofit stuff and got a few apps out, so thats kind of exciting in and of itself. Partner stayed with me for a few days last week, and am arranging a date with someone I’ve been seeing around in local leftist/queer/gaming circles. And by date I mean “come watch movies with the pup and I cause we’re poor.” Or maybe we’ll shoot some free pool at a spot by me, who knows.
Lastly - ayyyyy two months without alcohol! I seemed to have swapped it out with a caffeine addiction though, but oh well. More coffee, anyone?
Hope you’re doing well, friends!
Had a real sudden blizzard in my city, which is way scarier when you work with houseless people. The emergency winter shelters are open but we’re struggling to get enough people to run them, and I’ve been doing a lot of street outreach in the snow.
But in a way I’m happier to be worrying about my local community than about global politics or personal problems. I can cry about that stuff later.
Glad you’re doing good work!
I too would like to do social work. Where should I get started?
Heck yeah, I love convincing people to try this work.
The easiest way to get in is to apply for on-call or night shift work at a local shelter. Most shelter jobs here are union, and the good shifts tend to go internally in my experience. Agencies are almost always hiring for something though, retaining shelter staff is hard. I started as an on-call night shift worker at my first shelter, but pretty quickly moved up to managing whole programs because the work didn’t scare me away and I kept coming back.
There’s no education requirement for most jobs, and they really highly value people with lived experience with homelessness or recovery. If you’ve ever couch surfed or lived in your car or struggled with drugs, that’s actually a credential now. Look for job titles like “residential advocate” or sometimes “case manager”. There’s some resource coordination and such to be done, but most of the work is usually just managing the space, making sure guests get what they need, keeping things clean, and keeping calm if/when shit pops off. The best advocates I’ve worked with/hired are people who could be a calm and empathetic presence in the space and among the guests. The worst I’ve ever had were people who thought themselves better than our guests and showed it.
The good: this is the most meaningful job I’ve ever had. I’m doing good work and even when I’m grumbling about my agency (it’s frankly bullshit that we’re a nonprofit and not just a government function) and I’ve met a lot of great people. Most of my coworkers are fairly progressive if not outright leftist. It’s union work. The pay actually isn’t that bad. On a good day I’ll just spend the day hanging out with people shooting the shit and wont actually have to do any real work aside from light cleaning. Right now I’m typing a post on my phone and getting up to answer the phone and door. If nobody starts any drama, this will likely be the rest of my day.
The bad: you’re working with people going through what is probably the hardest time in their lives, and that can make people act like jerks. You’ll be surrounded by addiction and poverty. You will eventually have to narcan someone. You will eventually know someone who died in shelter, if you weren’t there to see it yourself. I have a fucking graveyard in my head and traumas that I can’t really talk about to anyone other than my shelter friends. There are employee protections, but you’ll still have to weather a lot of customer service type bullshit. Sometimes shit pops off and you need to be ready to convince people to calm down. Your agency will ask you to work weird shifts, especially during the winter. They will likely pay you pretty well for this inconvenience.
I’d be happy to answer anyone’s questions about shelter work either here or in PMs, and if anyone wants help finding positions in their city I could take a look if you don’t care about breaking opsec a little.
Thanks for all you do, comrade.