For this fieldwork, we partnered with the same team of people we had worked with before (one of the directors of the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, a new receptionist and funding administrator for the organization, and the development officer). What we did is we sorted through the thousands of presents donated to the organization for their children attending their holiday party. We sorted them by age, not gender so that the clinicians could choose for themselves what to give to their children. The work we were doing was exhausting and took up a lot of my energy, but that’s what made it so satisfying. This time we were the only people volunteering, and they’d arranged it so that we were doing all of the work. I knew that we had done them a huge favor by the way they kept thanking us, and this felt like actual work, not volunteering like we had done before. I enjoyed how what we were doing was extremely helpful to them. I discovered that though this wasn’t what all of the employees that are part of the organization did all the time, what we were doing was still very important to the organization. What we did provided the children with an experience that gave them a happy childhood even when they had undergone something as severe as abuse.  Child abuse organizations generally have parties and gathering for the children they serve. They do take a lot of time to organize, but they are very rewarding and fun as well. What we were doing helped a lot of children get the gifts they wanted, further helping them have a happy childhood. For our teach in, we could also start a gift or materials drive for one of the many organization we have contacted. It would be a great way to make a change in many children’s lives and show the kids we are working with the impact they can have on people’s lives.

(Photo taken by NYSPCC)