Now a couple of days into my final week, I can start to reflect on my time here at The High Street Centre. Since my last post, I’ve completed 2 funding bids, totaling over £13,000, almost finished my program, and continued to help out wherever I’m needed.
The bids are for the funding of a holiday club for children with additional needs, and during my time here I’ve supported after school sessions on a Monday for the same young people, which has been really rewarding. Seeing how much they enjoy the couple of hours every week, and imagining the difference it must make to both them, and their family (in terms of respite) has emphasised for me how the funding I’ve applied for, and the program I’ve produced, can make real differences.
The actual process of forming the applications for grants; the long, ‘wordy’ questions, scrutiny over grammar and generally unquantitative nature was more complicated than I initially thought. However, as with most tasks, once I actually start and get into something, I can apply myself and complete it without too much difficulty. I learnt lots throughout, one noticeable factor of the process being backing up with comparative quotes everything you ask for: although tedious, this is obviously necessary on their part, and morally a charity probably shouldn’t be applying for more than it needs.
I’ve also continued to work with the over 55s IT class and have received some great feedback from several of the attendees: it’s been great to see how things that I see as simple on a laptop or tablet, such as transferring photos can open up so many opportunities once taught, such as being able to share family photos across the world. As a result of this, I am looking into becoming a home tutor alongside my studies.
I look forward to my last few days of my internship and hope to complete my program to a standard I’m happy with, and then tutor the team on how to use it.