Buchaanan1
Zackary Buchanan
November 8, 2019
COMM 3243/2999
ALA Week Two Part A
The two places that I chose to hear conversations between different people was at Work,
a homeless shelter in Yakima Washington and at my Church on a Sunday morning.
In the location of my work, Camp Hope a Homeless shelter in Yakima Washington, the first
Conversation was between a staff member and a future resident coming in off the street looking
for a place to stay. The place the conversation took place was in the shelter’s office, the context
of the conversation is the staff member explaining what the shelters is and what rules we have to
keep the shelter safe so that the new person can stay. Th conversation went as followed, Staff:
introduces himself to new resident, shakes his hand, smiles and says welcome to camp hope, we
are all happy you are here and want to help you in what ever way we can, but first we will have
to go over rules and what this place is. After that the staff member asks the resident how you are
and what else can we do for you today. The resident say he is very hungry and could use a
shower and some clothes, so staff member gets up grabs his keys and takes the resident to get
clothes and sets him up for a shower and after that he his shown his new bed and a place to stay.
In this conversation I noticed three effective or ineffective listening behaviors and they were
used the power of questions, which allowed both to engage and listen, the power and empathy,
staff showed a care for the person. The third was the lack of interrupting, both people in the
conversation didn’t interrupt each other. In the second conversation, two homeless people who
