Healing Heart Observation Report

Although I volunteered with three different organizations this semester I wanted to focus this service-learning journal on Healing Hearts. We met with Julie Walls one of the coordinators of Healing Hearts, and started volunteering with them at the end of August.

Healing Hearts is led by a group of social workers. They start off Healing Hearts on the second floor of the human services building in downtown Newport News, here the kids are provided dinner. Once it six o’clock we move the kids upstairs to the sixth floor where we get into a circle for what we call opening circle. This is where we go over the rules of the center (i.e. Don’t talk while others are talking, treat others the way you would like to be treated, even a rule stating that everything said in the room stays in the room, no one is told not even the foster parents or the biological parents). Once we state the rules, we go in a circle and state our name, age, who we’re missing, and a fun fact about yourself. On average there are

about eight kids and six social workers/volunteers there. After opening circle we introduce the project that we will be working on that day. Usually the projects include drawings, coloring, and writing out our feelings. All projects relate back to foster care and the feelings we experience. During the project three to four kids will be picked at a time to visit the volcano room, which is a room down the hall that is a meant for kids to get out their feelings in a safe yet fun manner. There is everything you can think of to help the kid’s cannel their big feelings in a safe way. They have balls, nerf swords, bubble wrap, corn hole, a mini basketball hoop, hula-hoops, and even a giant doll they call Max. Max is a punching bag but on one side he is Caucasian and on the other side he is African American. The kids rotate into the volcano room throughout the Healing Hearts session.

I was nervous the first few times I volunteered with Healing Hearts.

The first time we were in opening circle I was scared, I didn’t feel like I had a right to say that I missed a family members when I would get to see mine in a few weeks, while some of these kids don’t get to see their families ever again. I wasn’t sure how easily our trainings would be put into practice. I guess over all I wanted to treat these kids as normal as possible while still giving them opportunity to open up about their feelings. I think this whole experience has made me grateful for what I have in my life, and respect others feeling toward situations because ever situation affects people differently and they are entitled to their own opinions. I do appreciate how these kids look at life and I think it gives a new perspective on the subject. I enjoy the energy the kids bring to the night and the enthusiasm that they use to talk about their relationships whether its positive or negative

emotions.

The social workers who work with Healing Hearts are Counselors, Brokers, Advocators, and Mediators. Counselors, because they are there to support the kids. They are a safe place where these foster kids can get there feelings out with people who understand the system they are going through. They are brokers because they are working with children, children don’t have much say or power over what happens to them so the social workers can connect them to services that they may need. They are Advocates of the children, they are there so that someone is looking out for these children and that the children feel like their voice can be heard. Lastly they are Mediators because these kids have a lot of emotions and they are going through confusing and emotional changes in their lives. Sometimes kids need help communicating to others.

Healing Hearts mission is to help children in foster care properly grieve their loses. Healing Hearts as a program serves children of all ages starting from the first group at three to seven, then the preteen group starting at eight to twelve, and as of right now they don’t have a teen group, mainly because their aren’t enough participants. Healing Hearts also offers a class to the foster parents of these kids to help with their feelings and also help give them useful tools on how to deal with the behavior of their child. Healing Hearts is funded by the human service department in Newport News. They should know the abuse and neglect policies and the family backgrounds.

My understanding on how these kids act really changed. I didn’t realize how happy these kids are, they have such a positive preteen behavior for everything that they are going through. They are very mature about their behavior toward their situations. Although they do have some tough moments, and rightfully so, they are very much regular children. I was shocked by how much they use violence not in healing hearts but a lot of their stories include violence at school, or how they want to use violence at school. I think the agency does exactly what I thought it would do. The kids look forward to Healing Hearts, and often ask to make it more than twice a month. I think it is such a necessary service, it should be a nationwide mandated program.