I just finished doing my practicum at ExCel which is an open custody group home for the youth just coming out of jail, it helps them reintegrate them into the community.
Overall I did enjoy it for the most part, the only thing I really did was hangout with the youth, I didn't get to learn how to do the paperwork part which was really disappointing. I've asked a few times, but when they do the paperwork they just want to get it done rather than showing it to us.
I knew most of the kids there since I did my practicum at the jail last semester and they were there too!
I went to excel on Wednesdays and Thursdays, and I did some Saturdays. I liked the weekends better overall because there was more stuff that we actually did on the weekends like going out swimming, watching a basketball game, hockey game or lacrosse game. One Saturday we went to the car show!!! On the weekdays we basically just stayed in the house, the kids would do their school work and pretty much nothing. The nice thing is we get fed there, the kids make lunch for everyone in the house. The best meal i've had when I was there probably would be the lasagna or fish n chips, and the worst would've been tomato soup and burnt grilled cheese sandwiches! :P
I did try to teach the kids and staff some sign language but they really didn't want to learn it was just the staff that wanted to, so that was a little disappointing.
One time we got to go to the Young Offenders Centre to interview some kids, so we could decide who should come to ExCel, when I was there it made me realize how much I missed it there.
I am planning on applying there to do some relief work!
Overall it is a great place to be, all the staff are nice and the kids are pretty well behaved since they know if they misbehave they will get sent back to jail. I liked working in the jail better because I learned way more there than I did at ExCel. When I was working at the jail I got to do pretty much everything I wanted to see, I got to see everything and spend a day in pretty much every unit that was there. At ExCel all I pretty much did was hangout with the kids, didn't get to learn how to do the paperwork and stuff so I didn't really learn anything there.
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