Words from Placement Students
Every year, our partners at the Law and Advocacy Centre for Women (LACW) and Youthlaw welcome students from a range of disciplines, offering placement experiences that are both formative and illuminating as they consider their future careers. Below, a few recent students share their experiences in their own words.
Names L to R: Mary Paterson (Integrated Practice Manager), Georgie Adeney (Social Worker), Karol Jones (Field Ed 1 MSW student), Mary Webb (Field Ed 2 MSW student), Ashling Morone (Social Worker), Rachel Clements (Social Worker).
L – Mary Webb and R – Karol Jones
My time at the Law and Advocacy Centre for Women on my FE1 placement has been deeply impactful. It feels like I will only truly understand with time the depth of experiences I’ve had there. I was able to grow in confidence as a social worker, with the support of my on site supervisors, in a way that was supportive and safe. Through the opportunities attending outreach at court, at the women’s prison, and in community programs, I have gained an intimate knowledge of the systems that we as social workers will work within and be up against. Working directly with clients has been truly meaningful and I will take them with me as I move through both my personal and professional life. I am very grateful to have learnt from the entire office at LACW and to see what true advocacy can look like.
– Karol Jones
My placement at Youthlaw was an incredibly rewarding journey, full of learning, growth, and hands-on experience. From the start, I had the opportunity to step into the role of a social worker in a community legal centre, within the boundaries of my student role, engaging with young people from diverse backgrounds and gaining a deeper understanding of youth justice. One of the highlights for me was attending court, a completely new experience, which gave me insight into the justice system and allowed me to support young people in what can be a stressful and intimidating environment. Throughout my placement, I practised and developed essential social work skills, including rapport building, active listening, trauma-informed approaches, critical thinking, professional judgment, and case noting.
What made the experience truly exceptional was the support and professionalism of the Youthlaw team. They were always understanding of the challenges students face, especially balancing university work alongside placement, and they genuinely considered our mental health and wellbeing. The orientation week was carefully designed to help us settle in, and throughout the placement, they provided opportunities to visit other organisations, attend sector events, and participate in webinars and professional training. I felt encouraged to explore, learn, and grow in a safe and supportive environment.
Overall, my time at Youthlaw was not just about gaining skills, it was about experiencing what it means to work as a social worker in a community legal setting, being part of a team that values learning and professional development and seeing firsthand the difference social work can make in young people’s lives. It was an inspiring and pivotal experience that I will carry forward in my career.
– Pavani Kankanamalage
The Smart Justice 4 Young People Internship has been an exhilarating learning experience I am grateful to have been a part of. Undertaking my internship at SJ4YP and being embedded within the Youth Law team has given me a deep insight into how a diverse coalition of multi-sectoral organisations can come together to create social and systems change for children and young people overrepresented in the criminal legal system. The supervising core SJ4YP backbone staff and wider coalition have been extremely welcoming sharing their knowledge and been fantastic role-models of how to work principledly and ethically within the sector.
I first reached out to SJ4YP because I was inspired by the SJ4YP Working Together Action Plan’s innovative address of the systemic root drivers of criminal justice overrepresentation and siloed working practices. The SJ4YP internship is a placement like no other, where I have been given the unique opportunity to go behind-the-scenes and meet the incredibly diverse coalition of over 50+ leading services, organisations and academics, widening my understanding of cross-organisational approaches to advocacy.
I have had an incredible hands-on approach to learning the importance of coalition building as a critical strategy to empower communities and build public support for social change. I have been able to gain an invaluable insight into the passionate coordination of internal and external cross-organisational advocacy processes including, submission writing, data sharing, campaign endorsement, working group collaboration and relationship building.
Through this internship I have gained greater confidence and developed my research and advocacy skills in a hands-on way by supporting the coalition through providing secretarial support at coalition meetings, synthesising inter-agency research into data visuals, supporting sentiment analysis projects and creating an accessible version of the SJ4YP Working Together Action Plan. It has been a highlight being able to work with the Youthlaw staff and social work placement students in tandem to SJ4YP to shadow court sessions and learn about the power of integrated law and social work practice settings to support young people’s complex needs.
Smart Justice 4 Young People is an extraordinary change-making coalition doing important work to end the overrepresentation and underservicing of our young people. Through the leadership of the SJ4YP, I have gained a great understanding of how to effectively challenge and dismantle carceral logics driving overrepresentation of certain children and young people in the criminal justice system with collaborative evidence-based advocacy. I greatly look forward to continuing my internship at SJ4YP and will take these invaluable learnings with me throughout the rest of my study and professional life.
– Theo Purchase