Week 3

In my first week at UMFS I spent a lot of my time researching and learning about UMFS and the communities they serve. My need for training and a deep dive into the background of the organization as well as the federal and state government systems in place kicked off my contributions to the UMFS team because as I was learning so were my team mates. While everyone at UMFS is educated on all aspects of virginia’s department of social services and the private supplemental support UMFS provides for some of the other employees in my training and education meetings it had been years since they had reviewed this material in such an all encompassing way. 

Due to my studies of Healthcare, Leadership and child developmental psychology I was able to ask very informated and specific questions that others later expressed to me were helpful for them to hear! I was personally very excited to be learning about the innovative and compassionate approach that UMFS takes that makes their supplemental services so impactful for youths and families in Virginia. My lack of expertise with UMFS and their services also allowed me to ask questions that the average individual would ask which is also very helpful to them to know- in other words, from witnessing me learning about and trying to understand the systems of care we were discussing it was helpful for them to know which gaps in knowledge that a potential foster parent for example might need to know!

In my second week I met with UMFS employees from regional centers all over the state to learn about and understand their region, their strengths and weaknesses, and how the marketing team and myself could help them meet their goals, meet census, and expand their reach as recruiters in their communities. This week has definitely been my most concrete personal contribution as each day has been filled with me conducting my own independent research and completing a competitive analysis for the marketing team. In my competitive analysis I am researching other organizations and what they are doing differently. I am taking feedback that I received from regional recruiters in last week’s meeting to identify gaps in their own current strategies so I can then make suggestions for improvement and materials they could use more effectively.