brittney fosbrook's Field Reports

hello there ctc vista project. things here at homeless prenatal are going right along-- i'm unofficially the interim technology manager. this means that i have been doing insane amounts of troubleshooting and teaching for both clients and staff. …read more

as a vista in the city i am alway looking out for free and interesting events. the public library in san francisco is pretty amazing at showing free films a couple of times per month and last night i had the pleasure of checking out the awesome documentary by Byron Hurt entitled " Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes." The documentary take as in-depth look at masculinity, misogyny, violence and homophobia within mainstream hip hop music and culture. although i thought the analysis could have run a bit deeper, the film makes a point to trace the interconnections of white supremacy, racism, homophobia, sexism and capitalism. and not only that, there are appearances by 50cent, mos def, fat joe and a bunch of other famous artists. …read more

i'm not sure if i have talked with anyone about this, but two weeks ago (i cannot believe how much time has gone by already) i went to an drupal extreme makeover.  basically, i was feed for two days and taught the ins and outs of drupal. well, i was taught as much as you can learn in a crash course.  i was also able to  work one-on-one with a drupal expert to start the revision of our extremely outdated helping-sf. it was an amazing experience (& free for our organization too!)  in the past two weeks, however, i have had about zero time to work on the website.  this drives me crazy.  currently, i am teaching class, helping in the technology center, doing general tech support for the office (meaning about 20 phone calls a day) and being a lead interviewer for my new boss (what?!?).  i feel as though there is no time to actually work on the projects that i feel i was hired for.  my job title would be more accurately stated as "master troubleshooter".    …read more

hello from san francisco.   it has been almost 3 weeks since my boss left and there is still no permanent new hire in sight.  currently, my ex-boss's niece is filling her position but i think it is only until the end of the year.  it is strange to automatically fill such a huge role in the organization.  i am now teaching a technology class to the community health workers on staff and going full speed ahead on website reworking.  everything is finally settling back down and the only huge obstacle is my lack of proficiency in spanish.  when i am the only person in the lab (which does happen often now) and a spanish speaker comes in i feel so useless.  my spanish skills, however, are rapidly improving.  …read more

I am currently reworking an old website for HPP, Helping-SF.  This website is meant for low-income families and case managers.  In it's current form, the website is very disorganized both in terms of content and also in terms of pages and locations.  There are numerous broken links, orphaned pages and older versions housed within numerous local locations.  Although I have some experience with dreamweaver, I have never moved an existing site to a new location.  I am not sure if it would be better to work with the existing local files and reorganize that way or whether I should migrate the site to a local folder and start fresh.  Any suggestions?  …read more

I have officially been working with HPP for almost two weeks now.  Besides becoming formally oriented with the organization, I have spearheaded a couple of interesting projects.  My host organization, formally titled Homeless Prenatal Program although everyone calls it HPP, is made up many smaller departments: Community Health Worker Training, Wellness Program, Substance Abuse, Childcare Center and the Technology Center.  I am working in the technology center as a tech specialist.  I have also been assigned to being the volunteer coordinator.  At this moment there is nothing to formally monitor and organize volunteers.  …read more

i a feeling mighty unreflective, but that is what happens sometimes in new places. however, i am looking forward to moving to san francisco and starting at the homeless prenatal program. after the first day of this training, it excites me that i will have much to learn technologically speaking. welcome to the new blog and hello san francisco (although this picture is a bit of posh SF--it was all that i could find).