Navigating the Title of ‘Intern’

I felt embarrassed. I felt like they just viewed me as the intern that knew nothing and was asking questions everyone at VSH should know the answer to. They didn’t even really answer my questions so I was looking forward to meeting with them over zoom.

Last week, an intern from RVA Justice Hub reached out to my supervisor and I about updating our information on their website. RVA Justice Hub works as a resource bank for currently and formerly incarcerated individuals. Their website is a list of all the resources available to that specific population. VSH is listed on their multiple times but the information is outdated and the organization of it all is quite confusing. In order to help RVA Justice Hub communicate clearly how we could help formerly incarcerated individuals, my supervisor asked me if I could email a couple people within VSH about specific questions.

I sent out these emails and was met with responses that were very vague and frankly not very helpful. They provided me with general information that I already knew. After sharing them with my supervisor we all met on a zoom call.

During the call it became clear that the questions we were asking were much more loades and complicated than we thought they would be. There are so many layers to the programs at VSH and the services we provide. Lots of confusion was cleared up between the four of us, but some problems came to the forefront.

One of the main problems I walked away from that meeting thinking about was the current website. Accurate information about our organization and the services we provide should be available to employees and to the general public in some fashion. But due to our outdated website and many organizational changes, this is not the case. I realized that my email was met with so much confusion because the nuances of our programs should be common knowledge for every employee. Unfortunately though, there is no place that this information is accurately documented and so no place for new employees that haven’t lived through the changes, can learn about the programs.

Following this meeting, I called my supervisor, the Communications Officer, to talk about this. This conversation ended with a new action item for the both of us to update our website. Explaining our nuanced programs and services in a clear and comprehensive way will not be easy, but I look forward to contributing to this process. I know that this will have a great impact on the sharpness of employees and greater understanding of our organization for the general public as well.