1 point for Britter!

So today was great!

It was a stressful day to start out, but it got to be so much better!

Today the Texas Council on Family Violence reps came out to see me and my program... wait I probably should explain what I do first.

My title is Domestic Violence Primary Prevention Specialist. So what that means is that about 75% of my time is devoted to creating a grassroots effort to prevent Family Violence (also known as Domesitc Violence), by collaborating with community members. Right now I'm mapping out what our community (Williamson County)looks like, in all aspects. So I'm working with the Census, crime reports, county data, city data, etc. etc. etc. I am the head of a community coalition where we foster discussion and strategically plan a pilot project based on the information that we have collected to prevent Family Violence. So I do lots of shmoozing to community members to be stakeholders and convince other community members that this is worthwhile. I also gather data in a lot of forms, interviews, focus groups, surveys, etc, to see what the norms are, what the problem of DV (domestic violence) is.

Well TCFV (Texas Council on Family Violence) is an agency that kind of makes sure that I'm in compliance and on track with my grant. They are great! But they also have lots of power. For example, after today's meeting they report back to HHSC (where my grant comes from) what our progress and our promise is.

Well I was pretty nervous about today's meeting. Because it was going to be our CEO, 2 TCFV people and myself in this meeting. I was to tell them what we have done up until this point (which I didn't have much of a clue since I've only been here for a month and there wasn't any material given to me from the person in this position before me), and to tell them where we are planning on going. So today was about making a good first impression and also showing promise for our pilot project.
It was also important to me to show our CEO that I have the skills to do this job, and that I'm excited about it as well, so she can put faith in me to do a good job.

I think I did a pretty good job! I felt like such the adult! Conducting a meeting! I even made handouts... and funny thing... One of the reps from TCFV had the same handout that I had given them, to give to me! :) BOO YA!
My boss seemed happy and confident about my program and also seemed happy with my performance in the meeting. The TCFV reps seemed excited about our planning process and where we are going. So everyone was happy all around!