Week of 2/12-2/16

Daily Descriptions 

• Monday 2/12

• Today I met with Abigail Sawyer, an employee at the Solid Waste Department. I met with her to get some ideas for the April health education handout. That month’s theme is the Victorian Era, which was around the time John Snow studied cholera epidemics and hypothesized ideas that predated germ theory. Thus, I wanted to provide some information on proper sanitation and waste management methods as well as the role that waste management and sanitation play in the health of a community. I gained some great insights and left with many handouts and resources that will enable me to disseminate this information to populations with varying health literacy statuses. I gathered information on the main 3 streams of waste management in Athens-Clarke County: landfills, composting, and recycling. ACCUG engages in innovative work and has many exciting upcoming projects that aim to improve the welfare of the community. After the meeting, I spent a lot of time gathering the notes and compiling it into manageable and understandable chunks. Today I also created a new excel file with contact information for each of the employees attending the Cook-Along demo this Friday as well as which ingredients they need. I will continue to update and contact employees this week so that we can purchase and provide the correct number of ingredients and ensure that the process runs smoothly. I also continued to contact and schedule participants for the hearing screening. 

• Tuesday 2/13 

• Today, I worked on the Canva on the importance of proper sanitation on health for a good amount of time. I have learned various tips and tricks on Canva throughout the internship, which I know will help me with future projects outside of Athens. It can be time consuming taking the information I compiled from my sources yesterday and writing them in a way that is understandable to individuals with various types of health literacy levels. The handout I am working on this week will definitely be the trickiest one so far because I need to ensure that I can tie in the importance of proper sanitation on health, the Victorian Era, and the promotion of health and well-being. I worked on the handout for around 5 hours today. I also continued to schedule people for the hearing screening.  

• Wednesday 2/14 

• Today I met with Kendra at Lay Park at 9 am to go over some of my projects before our data inventory meeting with the GIS department and several HR officers. I was able to update the sheet with the Health Fair attendee names that were difficult to decipher, meaning that we can finally analyze the data from participants. Kendra also provided me with feedback on my March handout, which I then made the corresponding changes later on in the day. I also gathered and compiled all of the needed ingredients and contact info for each participant in the Cook-Along demo Friday night. While this does not require critical thinking skills, it can be very tedious and I typically triple check the names, the list of their needed ingredients, and contact information (work location and phone number) because I want to avoid accidentally purchasing too few or too many ingredients as ACCUG pays for them. I attended her spin class after the GIS meeting. While I had my proper sanitation on health handout nearly done, I still worked on it for a little over an hour, changing the wording to be more understandable and user friendly, as well as enhancing the aesthetics of the page. 

• Thursday 2/15

• Today I attended the Gentle Yoga session, which was held at the Solid Waste Department. This program is intended for individuals with arthritis, however anyone can join. I not only gained physical strength from attending, but also was able to further my relationships with a few ACCUG employees. I was supposed to gather the thoughts and opinions of participants as well as from the instructor because we are debating contracting her out each week to teach the class. I received helpful feedback to which I relayed back to Kendra. I also spent time finalizing the contact information and needed ingredients for each of the participants, double checking each step. I mostly worked on updating various things I have worked on throughout the week to ensure professionalism in the delivery of these materials and assignments.  

• Friday 2/16 

• Today I met Kendra at Trader Joes at 8:30 am to gather ingredients for the participants engaging in the Cook-Along demo tonight. It was beneficial to see the whole process that goes into making sure these programs run efficiently. I think the most valuable component of the program is the fact that the ingredients are provided by ACCUG to encourage engaging in healthy cooking and eating practices as a means to promote employees overall health and well-being. Oftentimes, more nutritious foods can be expensive, so this approach enables individuals from all over Athens to join. After shopping, we placed the correct ingredients each participant needed in their own respective bags and dropped them off at various departments throughout the county. I was able to go to the IT department as well as the Sandy Creek Nature Center. This internship has definitely opened my eyes to the vast amount of goods and services the county provides for residents. 

Weekly Summary 

Overall, I probably spent 30 minutes a day on average contacting people and registering them for the hearing screening. Pretty much everyone I corresponded with was friendly, spoke very highly of Kendra, and wished me luck throughout my internship, which I thought was very kind. Since this was my second time working on the Cook-Along demo, I was able to see and evaluate the process/ program from a different angle this time around. It was beneficial to see how valuable it is for the program to provide groceries and ingredients to participants because it can be challenging for some individuals to purchase the more expensive and nutritious foods. I enjoyed attending the Gentle Yoga session because I got to ask employees whether they think the sessions are effective and what else they would like to see. I found this to be not only helpful information for Kendra to use in the future, but also enabled employees to feel as though their voices were being heard. This notion, to me, is what makes these programs so efficacious. Meeting with Abbie from Solid Waste was amazing because I learned so much about how ACCUG handles solid waste and gained knowledge on the various programs and projects going on throughout the county to improve waste disposal practices. 

Responsibilities & Competencies 

• 2.1.2- Facilitate collaborative efforts among priority populations, partners, and stakeholders.

• I met this competency by engaging in meaningful conversation with Abbie Sawyer, an employee at the Solid Waste Department, who educated me on how landfill, recycling, and composting services are provided throughout the county and that impacts various demographics. 

• 5.1.5- Identify existing coalition(s) or stakeholders that can be engaged in advocacy efforts.

• I met this competency by discussing ways to educate students on proper waste disposal, whether that be putting up flyers in my sorority house or providing information on products that can and cant be recycled/ composted. We made plans to advocate for better waste disposal practices amongst college students. 

• 4.3.4- Monitor data collection procedures.

• I met this competency by attending the GIS department data inventory meeting, where I learned the various ways different departments collect and gather employee data, as well as the protections in place to establish confidentiality of employee PHI. 

• 3.3.2- Assess progress in achieving objectives.

• I met this competency by engaging in conversation with the GIS department to evaluate the effectiveness of data collection practices and whether those practices could be enhanced. 

• 4.4.4- Draw conclusions based on findings.

• I met this competency by conversing with the participants at the Gentle Yoga session and gathering their opinions and perspectives to see what other practices they would like to see in these sessions. I then relayed the information back to Kendra. 

• 6.1.2- Identify the assets, needs, and characteristics of the audience(s) that affect communication and message design (e.g., literacy levels, language, culture, and cognitive and perceptual abilities).

• I met this competency by engaging in meaningful discussions with the Gentle Yoga participants and asking them how effective the program is for them. Every participant said that these sessions are very beneficial for them because their work schedules make it hard to engage in physical activity, and these sessions provide them with a means to. 

• 5.2.8- Specify strategies, a timeline, and roles and responsibilities to address the proposed policy, system, or environmental change (e.g., develop ongoing relationships with decision makers and stakeholders, use social media, register others to vote, and seek political appointment). 

• I met this competency by developing ongoing relationships with employees and individuals involved in the Cook-Along demo program. By engaging in the entire process of obtaining information from participants, gathering necessary ingredients, dropping off groceries to their respective departments, and ultimately seeing how much employees love the program, I was able to specify the timeline, strategies, and roles and responsibilities essential to put on an effective program. 

Reflection 

This week I enjoyed learning about all of the little logistical details that go into the provision of goods and services in Athens-Clarke County. I feel as though most college students take these services for granted, and being able to see the behind the scenes of these departments has made me grateful for all that the county provides. However, it has also been eye-opening to learn about the future plans of the county. UGA’s growing student population has taken a toll on the administration of certain goods and services, and with goals for the university to add thousands of more students, it will be interesting to see how the county responds. Also, I learned from my meeting with Abbie that Athens is expected to run out of room in our landfills in a mere 37 years. This shows that the county will likely have to take a different approach to proper waste disposal in the near future in order to continue to protect resident’s health and well-being. I have found it quite interesting to see how many of the departments, while engaging in very different work, all have the utmost goal of protecting the well-being of residents. To me, this is what I believe local government is all about.