Over the last year, I have worked as an intern at Maggie’s Place, Mishkan’s center for social services. As I prepare for the next stage in my educational journey, I wanted to offer some insights I have learned along the way.
I am pursuing a Masters in Social Work and aspire to become a forensic social worker, someone who deals with the intersections of social services and the legal system. Getting this degree requires taking on internships, and I was attracted to the Maggie’s Place position because it is one of the few paid social work internships available. I also appreciated that the position involves both in-person and virtual sessions. That flexibility has demonstrated to me how this hybrid model can lend greater accessibility to clients.
One takeaway I found especially interesting was learning to navigate how to provide services to a Jewish community as a non-Jewish person. While Maggie’s Place offers help to anyone, most of our population is Jewish. I think this experience will be useful in the future because of the demographics of social work. My field is dominated by white women, whereas we serve diverse populations. Obviously, these situations are not identical, but I have learned a lot from knowing what it can feel like to be a bit of an outsider in the field.
Another key lesson has been discerning when to offer advice and when to simply listen. I get a lot of emails and phone calls from people who are going through difficult times. Often, there is a program or support group we provide at Maggie’s Place that is applicable to their situation. If not, I can pull from our database of resources from partner organizations or do my own research to point them toward the help they need. Other times, though, people just need someone to talk to, someone who will listen without judgment. This skill, knowing when to weigh in with advice and when to just keep asking questions to allow a client to get it all out there, has proved invaluable. Sometimes, after talking it through with me for nearly an hour, people are able to figure out what they need on their own!
In September, I will be moving on from Maggie’s Place to my next internship at Between Friends. There, I will serve as a legal advocate for domestic violence survivors, walking clients through court dates and options and talking with judges on their behalf. As my undergrad is in Psychology and Gender Studies and I am now pursuing an MSW with a focus in the legal system, I am very excited to work somewhere so applicable to my expertise. Maggie’s Place has taught me so much, and I can’t wait to keep learning.