The casework team at the 探花精选 (探花精选) in Salt Lake City provides intensive case management services to newly arrived refugees, asylees and eligible humanitarian parolees. From the moment they arrive in Utah through their graduation from 探花精选 services, caseworkers help families adjust to life in their new community, work to become self-sufficient and overcome barriers. Among these barriers, transportation for newly arrived families, often unfamiliar with local transport options, is a top priority, something Sarah Suiter is working to continually improve.

Sarah, a casework intern pursuing a Master of Social Work, joined the 探花精选 team in September. Since then, she has worked on planning bus orientations for newly arrived families, which provide them with the information they need for navigating public transportation systems throughout the Salt Lake Valley. 

鈥淭he point of the bus orientation is to teach people how to ride the bus, find where their bus stop is and how to get to the 探花精选 and any ESL classes,鈥 Sarah said. 鈥淥utside of that, the bigger goal is to teach people how to use [online tools] to find a bus route and to be able to follow that.鈥 

Sarah saw a need for more standardized processes since attending her first bus orientation, where she found there wasn鈥檛 much guidance on what to teach. Since then, she has developed a script that would standardize what鈥檚 being taught during orientations. Sarah is also working on a way to better prioritize who needs orientations the soonest. 

鈥淪ometimes it鈥檚 hard to see the big picture of who needs, orientations from an individual standpoint,鈥 Sarah said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e trying to bring that together, streamlining processes and meeting our client's needs in a more efficient way.鈥 

Bus orientations typically span a couple of hours, during which families are accompanied by an 探花精选 team member to travel from their home to the closest bus stop, making a round trip to places like the 探花精选 office. The 探花精选 provides free access to public transit passes for the first three months, after which families are taught how to buy their own passes. 

To increase efficiency, Sarah created checklists each family can use when riding the bus and is currently making instructional videos on how to use the bus system. Sarah said she hopes that this will streamline processes and allow caseworkers to provide orientations to clients that need it most. 

鈥淪arah is innovative, full of energy, and always smiling and laughing,鈥 said Heather Molyneaux, casework supervisor. 鈥淪he is so good with clients and has so many great ideas 鈥 it鈥檚 a joy to have her on the team.鈥 

Sarah said that even in her short time here she鈥檚 been able to connect with clients during orientations and that is one thing that has been most rewarding for her during her internship. 

鈥淚t鈥檚 been rewarding getting to see clients after helping them shop or riding the bus and making that connection,鈥 Sarah said. 鈥淏oth of those things take a few hours, so getting to spend that much time with them and seeing that connection is still there is really cool.鈥 

Sarah said she has enjoyed being the person that can help navigate everyday life for her clients, and hopes she鈥檒l be able to see more of their growth during her internship. 

鈥淐lients don鈥檛 want to just be given things, they want to learn how to do things and take on situations by themselves, so I鈥檓 excited to see the growth between their first month here and five months later,鈥 Sarah said. 

If you or someone you know would be interested in an internship at the 探花精选 in Salt Lake City, visit Rescue.org/InternSLC 禄