School: Emory University Rollins School of Public Health

I was placed at Voices for Georgia's Children (VOICES), a small non-profit research and advocacy group interested in creating a better life for Georgia's children. I was the first Emory Summer Child Advocacy Program (ESCAP) intern placed there, and so we started out not being sure of what was expected of each other and if I was going to really get the core tenants of the ESCAP program experience. My supervisor Lauren Waits had also attended the training at the beginning of the program to sort of get in tune with the expectations required of a placement, and so I was the experimental intern and can confidently say this is the beginning of a long list of ESCAP interns at VOICES.

The internship started with a week of training at the Barton Child Law and Policy Clinic at Emory University, and it was really overwhelming for me getting immersed in legal terms while at the same time trying to figure out how complicated the juvenile system really is. We also had speakers from the other welfare agencies come and speak to us and most did a convincing job of scaring us about the immense work in the world of child advocacy with so little hands to do it. At the end of the training we were a lot of enthusiastic interns ready to go and save the world and resolve all the problems in the juvenile justice system (DJJ), Department of Family and Children Services (DFCS), and the various placements to which we had been assigned.

My work environment was wonderful, and the staff warmed up to me immediately. Before I started any work we had already made plans for an office lunch where we would all sit and get to know one another. So that was very helpful in settling down. The first week was sketchy because my supervisor did not quite know what to do with me or how best to maximise my skills. The first task I had was to review a document "Georgia's Responsibilities Toward Children in Foster Care: A Reference Manual" and to identify the responsibilities specifically for the 0-5yr olds in foster care. We were amazed at how many programs were aimed at the aging out population but very little for the little ones that were less likely to fend for themselves or complain. I was also asked to review the "Kenny A Monitoring Report" and the letter from the Office of the Child Advocate regarding DFCS in Fulton County and compare them to see if there are any similarities in both documents. This was somewhat difficult because the documents were released pm different time frames, and while the monitor report was complimentary in its demand for change, the letter from the office of child advocate was not very complimentary. Both documents however reported and agreed on the need for an improvement in DFCS services in Fulton County.

By the end of the second week my supervisor and I had decided on a way we could use my medical expertise, and I was given a project which I will call the "0-5yr age group" project. The project involved review of literature and data on issues like home visitation and other policies that improve the health of this age group. VOICES was involved in a number of collaborations with other agencies, and one of such collaborations was the "0-5 yr age group" project. I attended quite a number of these meetings where different agencies came together to brainstorm over common ground, decide on certain outcomes and how to pursue them, and discover how interrelated most of the work of different agencies in child advocacy and welfare in Georgia is. During this week we also gave a talk to the Nordson Foundation, and it was interesting to see how my supervisor communicated our issues to a funding agency. Their response was very encouraging, and we were asked to attend some of their future board meetings.

Side by side with the work at the placement were all the fun things we did together as interns in the ESCAP program: we had several site visits and the most touching to me was the visit to a home for medically disadvantaged children called My House. The work being done in this centre was very encouraging, and it goes to show just how much good one person can do with a great idea an adequate support. Like every organisation it had its limitations, but for most part it had recorded remarkable success. We also went to the Georgia Centre for Children and attended the Celebration of Excellence for graduating students from the foster care system. There were also a lot of wonderful lunches in some of the nicest restaurants in Georgia with some lovely traditions. Most people from out of town enjoyed the Southern hospitality and flavour.

By the middle of my internship I was done with the 0-5yr age group project and had moved to another related project, which was to review the prenatal services for women in Georgia and compare it to what the literature and data show, and then come up with a summary of recommendations to improve them. The basis of these projects was the knowledge that if we improve the lot our 0-5yr old children, the cost benefit to Georgia will be enormous. The aim of the research was to prove this and use it as an advocacy tool for the legislators and get Georgia to invest more in this category of kids. I really enjoyed the project, and I realised that despite the facilities that exist presently, Georgia still lags behind in the neonatal mortality rates for the US. As you can see from my discussion so far, my office, despite the limited number of workers, was involved in a wide range of issues all aimed at improving the welfare of Georgia's kids. The most interesting of these efforts came up at the tail end of my internship, but I am grateful for having the opportunity to contribute to the work.

The project involves a coalition of various agencies under the umbrella body called "JUST GEORGIA", there are 3 major players: VOICES, Barton, and Georgia Appleseed with funding from the Sapelo Foundation. This coalition is working to improve the juvenile justice system and strengthen the underlying social services in education, welfare services, and health. The coalition is working closely with other child advocates and the Juvenile Law Committee of the State Bar of Georgia to ensure the passage of the Committee's revised juvenile code by 2010. The hope is that the revised code will also lead to some positive changes in the other social services mentioned above. My role in this project was to interview the stakeholders, finding out from them the outcomes they would love to see from the JUST GEORGIA project and then to come up with indicators for measuring these outcomes. This was a very interesting project for me because it gave me an opportunity to use the qualitative and quantitative skills from my public health training and apply them to the project. It also gave me an opportunity to interact with some major players in the advocacy and legal profession one on one. I decided to use the logical framework matrix for this project and spent most of the last few weeks getting the indicators incorporated into the logical framework. I hope that the coalition will refer to the logical framework as they move forward with the project.

The internship has come to an end with a feeling of plenty of unfinished work, but the joy is that someone else will build upon the little work we have done and continue the fight for a better life for the children of Georgia. I would like to thank my placement, VOICES, for the wonderful experience that I had while with them, Barton for selecting me for the ESCAP program and my friend, supervisor, and mentor Lauren Waits for all the direction and advice she gave me. God bless you.