Community Board Reflection

At Community Boards, the skills and disciplines that I learned was that I was able to handle clients through phone calls more effectively and in a manner in which I can be neutral. I also learned to be very patient with some clients over the phone, where some phone calls had spent over an hour of the client’s time talking to me about their issues at their residence. I was able to cultivate the skill of being able to use different communication styles in order to deal with certain people and their styles, for often I would have to deal with people that very emotional, because of their situation, whether they be angry, sad, or hopeless, I had to alter my style of communication to accommodate their needs and try to calm them down. Although I

wasn’t always successful in dealing with people, because of external factors, such as I wasn’t really able to hear them clearly, or there were certain cultural differences that I didn’t understand, and or language barriers that stopped me from helping people. Through Community Boards, I was able to work on being patient with clients, because of my other occupation experience, retail and security. Before Community Boards, I would not like to hear the client or customer repeat themselves over and over, for I wanted to help the person without all the unnecessary conversation. Community Boards has taught me to learn the ability to become very patient with some people, in instances where I was on the phone for thirty minutes up to an hour, and really listen to what they were saying and the issues they were having. I was able to listen effectively and then quickly summarize their issues over the phone, so the clients will know that I’m listening and understand their points. Another skill that came from patiently dealing with customers, is the ability to listen to the client and grasp the main points. There were many cases, where I was on the phone with someone who had a complex situation, for often some clients had many issues with the other person. One client that I spent upwards of an hour listening to, had many issues with not only one group of people, but many other individuals that have no relations to each other. Through patiently and carefully listening to the client, I understood that I need to split up the problems and work towards getting the right people in the right room, while I was also weeding out the unnecessary or lower priority issues. Another discipline that I had worked on, during my time at Community Boards, is the discipline of being on top of the work I was assigned to do, for there was a plenty of work that needed to be completed in a timely manner. There were clients who needed our services as soon as possible or during a certain time, before they are going out of town or the person they have an issue with is coming or leaving town. In order to facilitate the people who had special circumstances, I had to work extra quick to get everything done and sent out to all the parties involved, but at the same time I had to make sure everything was right and everything was how the client wanted it. Another skill that developed and obtained through interning at Community Boards, was the ability to work with others and troubleshoot issues with my superiors in dealing with clients or projects. When I was working with the other intern in trying to figure out who referred most of our clients, we had worked together to split the work evenly and then piece together a conclusion from the data that was drawn. We had to make sure that we didn’t re-count each other’s division and make sure that everything was clear and presentable. There was times, where I had to talk to Cordell about an issue I was having with a client, over the phone, and I had to discuss what should I do and how to classify the client. Often times, there would be prospective clients that I was talking to, but to find out that they required more attention from Cordell and I would transfer the call to Cordell. I then would give Cordell the necessary description of the client’s problems and what they want, then Cordell would sometimes, transfer the call back to me in order to input the personal information of the client, as well as writing all the extra info Cordell may have received. Thus after all the information had been received, I would then forward the case to Mac and he will look over the details. All the details in that case are crucial to how the case is handled with and finding the right mediators for the job, for if I wrote that the client was having a noise complaint issue, but in reality the issue was about money, thus the mediators would have wasted time on dealing with the wrong issue. An important skill that I have worked on in dealing with customers, is the skill of being persuasive and trying to get people to try mediation, for many people have never tried mediation, nor have they really researched mediation. I often would hear that people have found Community Boards through internet searches or through police referrals, but whenever I ask them, if they had heard of mediation before, the answer would be usually no. I worked on selling mediation, because mediation can be a gamble sometimes, for the process is voluntary and there is no expectable outcome, meaning that people may or may not have their issues resolved. I would often try to tell the clients that there are limitations to mediations, such as lack of legally binding contracts, but at the same time, I would tell them that they can get their voice heard, by saying they are the ones conversing with each other and trying to get to resolution through communication. A lot of times, people felt like they have no hope when dealing with their problem and have forfeited any sort of conversation with the other party, but I would tell them that there is hope in mediation and there may be a possibility of a good outcome. Through all the other skills I have worked or received through Community Boards, one of the most important skills that I had worked on, was my ability to memorize cases and phone calls, for often these cases span from days to weeks to months. Often Mac would ask me about a case where the description may be a bit vague, but I would remember the call and the caller, thus allowing me to retort some things I heard from that caller a week prior.
Community Boards has helped my professional and academic development, by allowing me to gain necessary life skills that are needed, I feel, in today’s work force.

One of the skills that helps me towards my professional development, is the necessary skill of effective communication. I’ve spent majority of my time at community boards conversing with people and my co-workers. Whether I was explaining the process to a client or troubleshooting a client’s issue with Cordell or Mac, every conversation I had, has helped me become a better communicator. Thus helping my professional objective of working in Law Enforcement, which I feel, requires the ability to effectively and concisely communicate with others. When I do achieve my professional goal of being in Law Enforcement, I can tap into Community Board’s resources, for they work with various groups in San Francisco, such as with the District Attorney’s office or the local law enforcement officers. If I were to become an officer for the San Francisco Police Department, I would be able to call Cordell or Mac and discuss the best way I could deal with a potential conflict encounter. For instance, if I were to be at a school and some kids were having issues, I could relay that conflict to Community Boards and their pool of mediators in order to deal with the kids. Another possibility and has happened throughout my summer at Community boards, is that if I were to be the police officer and cannot help the person at all or they need a service that I can’t provide, I can refer them to Community Boards and they are able to help them directly or refer them to the correct agency that can. I’ve already taken the next step in my career development, for now I’m working at the Daly City Police Department as an intern and getting my foot in the door that may lead me into many different paths throughout the Criminal Justice system. Community Boards has complemented my academic studies by allowing me to better grasp the different

methods of conflict resolution and how to apply different techniques at the right time, whenever a person is having an issue with something. For instance, at Community Boards, often I would have people that would be very upset in the beginning of the phone call, I had to effectively try to calm them down and by the end of the call, the person often would be more calm and sometimes feel hope that their situation would be helped. Thus the ability to be able to calm someone and get them to converse with me, while I’m trying to help create a solution for the person and their problems, will vastly help me in the streets as a law enforcement officer. Through my time at Community Boards, I have become more aware and understanding of the different personal dynamics that affects people’s communication styles. I spoke with many different people of all ethnicities, genders, and social backgrounds, therefore the previous classes such as Gender and Communication or Interpersonal Communication have been complemented by my time at Community Boards. For instance, I had a situation where a person didn’t want to be classified under the binary gender system, but that person wanted to be classified just a human being. I was more understanding of where this person was coming from, as well as respecting their wish and opinion. Community boards is a mediation service provider and having taking Mediation Practice and Theory, I was able to better understand, by talking to clients, on how mediation works and why the technique is so effective, but at the same time, not so effective for certain issues. There were many situations in which many people just needed someone to talk to and I would talk to them, despite not being able to provide direct help, I was able to understand that people feel that they aren’t being heard. One of the most important parts of mediation is allowing for both parties to be heard and that even though I wasn’t facilitating a mediation, I was still able to make sure people were heard by actively listening and re-stating what they had been saying.