Volunteering at a mental health clinic, a substance abuse treatment center, or a children’s foster care home can help you gain experience in social services. Volunteering at homeless shelters, soup kitchens, and free clinics are other options for gaining social services work experience. The work can be taxing at times, partly due to the large number of people who need help. If you have a social work degree, you may be eligible for an internship with a local agency. You might be able to gain experience securing a temporary position with a social service agency, where you’ll get hands-on experience while being closely supervised a more experienced social worker.
Working with real clients is one of the most difficult aspects of gaining experience in the social services field. Unlike other jobs, any blunder while working with a client can result in a disastrous situation with serious consequences. This is why, before beginning unsupervised work, many social service positions require one to two years of volunteer or intern experience. Periodic training and testing ensure that a worker is meeting his or her training and skill requirements.
Many social service agencies welcome volunteers who want to gain experience working in the field. Volunteer positions include working with children, families, and individuals; assisting in the search for housing; assisting in the registration of a person for government assistance programs; and driving a shuttle to hospital appointments. This can be beneficial work experience for a newcomer or someone who is pursuing a social work degree. Volunteers are frequently needed to help run and oversee group meetings in substance abuse programs, which can lead to valuable social services work experience. You can simply contact the organizations where you want to work and offer your services as a volunteer.
Churches are another excellent source of social work education. Many churches offer substance abuse and domestic violence classes, and some even provide shelter for battered women and their children. These are all excellent places to get training and hands-on experience in the social services field. Nursing homes and veteran’s or children’s hospitals are also good places to get experience in the social services field. Many programs allow you to begin working and gaining on-the-job experience in the social services field without any prior education or experience if you agree to become certified within a certain time frame.