On Tuesday, my group and I set out to visit the Our House homeless shelter for kids and families. At first I was very anxious and nervous, because I didn’t know what to expect, nor how I was going to react. This mainly due to the fact that  I did not know what our service learning project was going to be about. But after meeting and talking with Sabine Augustin, the program service coordinator, I began to feel a little at ease. First, Sabine gave us a tour of the shelter, where we got to see the day care and meet some of the other coordinators, and see some of the rooms, that the families stayed in. It was nice to know that even though the families were to stay at the shelter for a short time (usually 6 months), the volunteers and coordinators made the shelter feel like a home where the families could always return to. We also got to see some of the renovations that they were working in some of the bathrooms and rooms. After the tour, we got to sit down with Sabine and discuss the vision of the project. We had a really insightful discussion about the different programs that they wanted to start, such as Trauma Informed Care, where volunteers are trained properly on how to handle victims of trauma. Sabine also talked about how the shelter is working on transition programs, and that even if the family leaves their child can still be enrolled in the daycare. Our main focus of the project is best practices for safety. This includes how to keep the buildings up to fire code regulations, child proofing certain areas, and figuring out ways to make the environment safe for trauma victims. Overall, I’m excited to continue with this organization for this project.