Winthrop Public Schools (Maine)
Address: 211 Rambler Road
City: Winthrop
State/Territory: Maine
Zip/Postal Code: 04364
Country: United States
Website: https://www.winthropschools.org/
Phone Number(s): 207-377-2228
On-Site Supervisor/Contact: Emily Fortin
efortin@winthropschools.org
Description: Generalist and Specialization Year Opportunities
Fall Start - Traditional Practicum ONLY (32 weeks)
Social work services are provided to the district at the Grade School (K-5), Middle School (6-8), and High School (9-12) to assist students and their families as needed to address personal, social or emotional maladjustment related to their educational and/or social progress. Responsibilities may include but are not limited to:
Client/Constituent Contact: Studying, intervening, and assessing students in settings that include the classroom, individual sessions, small group work, family systems, and the school-wide community; the collection of biological, psychological and sociological assessment data related to planning, intervening and goal attainment for children with adjustment problems; triaging students with emergencies/crisis’ as needed; providing unbiased and supportive counseling, education, and referrals as required with respect to client’s unique race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, ancestry or national origin, or disability.
Administrative Tasks/Case management/Support: Case management style services may include assistance with the intake process; arranging, coordinating, monitoring, evaluating and advocating for multiple services that meet a student/family’s complex needs; performing casework services with families as part of an integral task of helping students; increasing the knowledge and use of appropriate resources available to the school community; research regarding local resources and potential partnerships for ongoing use, file/record reviews, etc.
Meetings/trainings/conferences: Meet weekly with LCSW to complete case studies, reflect on CSWE competencies, micro/mezzo/macro interventions, and outcomes with specific attention to how values, ethics, and bias impact performance and how healthy self-care aids retention; attend a variety of interdisciplinary meetings; participate in applicable school-wide workshops/trainings.
Miscellaneous: Contribute to strategies utilized in school-wide interventions that support the mental health, social and emotional needs of students and the school community on an ongoing basis while ensuring respect to all client’s unique race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, ancestry or national origin, or disability; plan and apply interventions that will assist students to meet academic/social milestones that eventually lead to graduation. Intern will have the opportunity to shadow the district social worker and school counselors, the school nurses since they often support students who are struggling with mental/emotional/social needs, as well as the Special Education teachers and Behavioral Interventionist, the Title IX Coordinator and Affirmative Action coordinator, and McKinney-Vento homelessness liaison. Specific support may also be provided around students experiencing food insecurity.
Additional Info: It would be important for the student to feel comfortable working with a wide age range since there will be opportunities to work with grades K-12. Multiple techniques and approaches are necessary with each student/client in a variety of settings. Specifically, play therapy techniques are key at the grade school for helping students with lower communications skills process trauma and build socialization skills, group work is imperative at the pre-teen/young teen level to build interpersonal and empathy skills, and individual counseling sessions for older students are vital to help process complex challenges and emotions so they can reach their goal of graduating. These interventions, paired with district-wide prevention/intervention/crisis management approaches, case management services, mediation techniques, collaboration with interdisciplinary team members, work to build community resources, and building advocacy skills for vulnerable, oppressed and other high risk groups are just some of the opportunities an intern would need to be excited about.
Placement Type: