DFI, A Community

~Allison Lewis In my MSW community class last semester, we were assigned an Action Oriented Community Diagnosis (AOCA) project, in which I was expected to conduct a detailed analysis of the community that my place of internship served. When first reading through the assignment, I thought to myself, how could I possibly analyze the community that DFI serves when it is so vast? Over the next few days, I was trying to decide whether to focus on a specific age group like children or adults or a city such as Westminster or Aurora when suddenly it dawned on me— why not analyze the DFI community itself?

Shortly thereafter, I had the opportunity in a DFI class to observe my own individual supervisor work with a family. During this session, I watched my supervisor being supervised by his own supervisor from when he had first come to DFI as a student like me ten years prior. After the session, my supervisor shared with our class his personal feelings about his own family and how it related to the current session. This moving experience confirmed my gut feeling; DFI was in fact a community in and of itself. And there it was— I had decided once and for all to analyze the DFI community for my AOCA. The heart of the project consisted of interviewing community members. I identified members of the DFI community to be interns, first, second and third year students, faculty, administration and supervisory staff, and alumni. I was able to interview 7 different community members who offered me various perspectives of DFI. However, each individual that I interviewed identified the passion for both the field and the program as an integral part of DFI’s community. The “interest and energy” and the “tight-knit” environment enables DFI to “live up to its motto of Excellence, Integrity, Service.” When asked what they believed to be some of the biggest strengths of DFI’s community, members shared a number of strengths including the “pool of talent,” the “knowledge and values of staff,” and the “upgraded technology.” Additionally, members acknowledged the “collaborative” nature and “sharing of leadership,” as well as the “relationships [that develop] with others.” Others noted DFI’s “pursuit of service,” its “value on the free spirit,” and its “acceptance and openness.” And lastly, a community member identified DFI’s true “dedication to serving...not because of the money, but because of the belief.” As you can imagine, it turns out that I thoroughly enjoyed conducting an AOCA! It was refreshing and educational for me to learn more about DFI and enhance my own understanding of this community. After only one semester, I too, have developed this incredible sense of belongingness to the community and look forward to my own future as a part of DFI.

Denver Family Institute

DFI, A Community

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