Social Work Internship
Social Work Internship
Social Work Internship in criminal justice reform involves serving clients with some type of involvement within the criminal justice system. The social work intern will be subjected to serve with varies clients such as inmates, former convicts, or family members of offenders.
A social work intern should be responsible for identifying rehabilitative services that were not provided by the correctional facilities and provide support services to family members that were impacted by the offender’s actions. A social work intern is needed in the criminal justice system to service and advocate for one of the most vulnerable populations. Individuals involved in the criminal justice system are among the most vulnerable because they have issues struggling with poverty, addiction, and mental health.
The work of a Social Work Internship on-site and in the community can bridge the gaps between the community by working with nonprofit, grassroots organizations, or government agencies to provide resources to benefit clients that are struggling with poverty, addiction, and mental health.
The social work intern will learn how to assess client needs and help them get the necessary available community resources to provide their client with supportive services.
The social work intern will be able to apply school coursework with academic training to apply to the real world and practice skills learned.
The main (3) different areas of social work and the Social Work Internship consist of these (3) different areas of practice which are: micro, mezzo, and macro. The first year of my internship consisted of my focus on micro-level which is working directly with individuals or individual families. This helps me to focus more on empowering the individual or families that are experiencing problems with locating resources, removing barriers, and empowering change from the client’s current physical or mental health state. A clinical intern assists with individuals and family therapy or substance abuse counseling which is a part of the micro-level. The second year of internship focuses on mezzo which works with small groups of clients.
At the mezzo level, this includes working with substance abuse Counseling groups and facilitating the group or working with a community organization to assist with creating new plans to benefit the agency and client’s overall well-being. Finally, the macro social work practice promotes societal or cultural change involving research, lobbying, and administration. The macro-level also impacts the micro and mezzo level to address the field of social work practice through policies and legislation.