Hi All,

I would say the highlight of my second week at Huckleberry House was the meetings I had with about half of the organization’s directors. Through these meetings, I learned a bit about their journey to Huck House, what they do in their current role, the skills they find essential to the work they do, and their hopes for Huck House’s future.

What stood out to me most from these meetings is how many of Huck House’s directors (and administrative staff) have been with the nonprofit for 10+ years, often starting out as a volunteer or intern and then moving up. Also, since many of them have served in various roles within the organization, they take a lot of pride in being able to not only do their executive duties but also direct service work. The decade or more of organizational knowledge they bring to their roles is evident in how they talk about what they do now as a director and in their hopes and plans for the future of the nonprofit. I really hope to one day intimately know and support an organization I work for so well.

Lastly, in between these meetings, I started acquainting myself with the project I’ll be working on for the rest of the summer (i.e., updating and expanding Huck House’s Safe Place program). Through Project Safe Place, Huck House partners with over 130 organizations in the Columbus area to provide youth ages 12-17 with safe places they can go, from which Huck House will arrange for them to get to the Crisis Shelter safely.

I would say my meetings, especially with the Director of Residential Programs and Director of Professional Development, helped me get an idea of how Safe Place works in relation to Huck House’s other programs. Moreover, I was even able to brainstorm with them some potential partners I might reach out to in order to expand the program.

All in all, I feel I now have a more in-depth understanding of some of the organization’s executive team and how what I will be doing in the next few weeks will help Huck House. Now, I am even excited about my meetings next week with the other directors to learn more about the housing and youth outreach programs.

Best,
Emoni