A day of learning...

Today I got the chance to go to St. Olaf for a few different things. My morning was spent talking to a class about the HOPE Center, Relationship Violence, Prevention, Education and a little bit about how I got to HOPE Center as well as some self-care tips for those thinking of entering the Social Work field. I always enjoy talking to students who are in the midst of determining what life path they want to choose. There is so much excitement, hope and a sincere desire to learn more about who we are and what we do. And with this class there were lots of great questions and I only wish we had more time to talk more about all of the issues we deal with on a daily basis.

And in the afternoon I was part of a class that had done brochures for the HOPE Center on different issues. The topics included:

* DANCO's (Domestic Abuse No Contact Orders)

* You are Not Alone: Understanding and Help for Families of Abuse Survivors

* Marital Rape

* What You Can Do When Someone You Love Is Being Hurt

* Understanding Why She Stays- for family and friends

As a part of the civic engagement piece of the Marriage and Family class with their professor Ryan Sheppard they had come to do a tour of HOPE Center, to find out more about what we do and how we could help, they then took that information and ran with it creating some great brochures for us with lots of good information.

Today was the unveiling of the final projects and it was so fun to see the final product and to hear more about what they had learned from the classes.

A good way to spend a Monday :).