Activity Summary 2 (Final 100 hours)

During the final stretch of my internship with Buffalow Family & Friends Community Days, my work shifted from early-stage research to completing a tangible deliverable: the "You're Not Alone" mental health resource brochure. This period also deepened my day-to-day involvement in BFFCD's operations and strengthened my working relationship with founder Nischelle Buffalow. Most of my time was spent synthesizing the mental health agency research I had gathered earlier in the internship into a usable format. I outlined the brochure's structure, drafted its content, and revised it through several rounds before finalizing the layout ahead of printing. Because the brochure is meant to serve as an ongoing resource, I also developed a standard operating procedure and an agency point-of-contact list for the front desk lobby, so staff and volunteers can maintain and update the resource after my internship ends. Writing that SOP required me to think differently than I had for the research itself; instead of just compiling information, I had to anticipate what someone unfamiliar with the project would need to keep it accurate and up to date over time. Alongside this project work, I stayed involved in BFFCD's regular programming, including packaging meals for a mobile food pantry distribution day. These hands-on shifts kept me connected to the population the brochure is ultimately meant to serve and provided ongoing opportunities to interact directly with clients and fellow volunteers. While helping clean up the kitchen, I joined a conversation with other volunteers and Nischelle about an upcoming September volunteer social, which reinforced how much of BFFCD's work depends on maintaining relationships with its volunteer base, not just its clients. This phase of the internship strengthened skills I hadn't expected to prioritize: technical and procedural writing, document design, and a focus on sustainability and handoff rather than just task completion. Producing a finished brochure and an accompanying SOP also gave me my first concrete, measurable contribution to point to, something I noted I lacked in my first-half reflection. More broadly, I came away with a clearer sense of what it takes to translate research into a resource that a small nonprofit can actually use and maintain over the long term, a skill I expect to carry into my future public health career.