I finished my placement on 9th September having opted to take my placement every day of the week towards the end of my placement. It was a bit exhausting to take the placement all five days of the week at first but in the long run, it became my routine.

Now at the end, I found myself reflecting on my IDRP journey. It has taken me longer than most to complete IDR (thanks to COVID) but nonetheless I have build my capacity in practice. I remember how horrible I felt the first time my field supervisor assigned me to work the phones. I had a lot of awkward silence with the clients on the other end. I felt very ill equipped and what was worse I was in a room with other staff members which kind of put me on the spot. As I adapted, I began writing scripts for different conversation scenarios and practices with my mirror when I got home and within no time, I had developed confidence and capacity in that area. It so happened that COVID-19 forced us to work remotely so I was good in so far as phones were concerned.

I also reflect how confused I felt coming in to work in a Social Work Field, being a development student. Half the time I missed out on tasks because I could not comprehend what they were talking about. (By they I mean client services department at AFS and Social Work students) I had been hoping to work in project management because I was familiar with it but as a result of COVID-19, all projects at AFS were suspended indefinitely. I had to make do. This taught me how to adapt to different environments. Within a couple of weeks, I had mastered enough to warrant me my first case management client.

I was assigned a child who had been a victim of family violence and my responsibility was to advocate for the child to secure funding towards acquiring furniture having fled home because of violence. I remember being asked to speak in a care team meeting and how nervous I was given that I had not prepared my cheat sheets to organize my conversation. My field supervisor advised my to put myself in the child’s shoe and speak from the child’s point of view. This enabled me to advocate for the child better.

Aside from case work, I reflect on the trainings I attended to build my capacity in terms of understanding Social Work and how to support clients better from that point of view. These trainings have enlightened me and sparked an interest in social support services. I can say for certain that from my placement, I was inspired to enrol in Preventing Violence Against Women class this semester and I am finding it easy to relate because I got a head start at placement.

I have developed leadership skills at AFS while doing my placement. As I resumed placement, my field supervisor would trust me to coordinate other students in terms of assigning duties and supporting them get resources from AFS. I can say that this improved my ability to work with others in practice. I was trusted with leadership roles leading projects which inspired me to step up.

While developing career-wise, I have also developed on a personal level and I see myself being able to build my own organization that support women and children which has always been my desire. Placement for me was very rewarding.

I am in my second week of placement. I had been assigned to work on a project called Train The Trainer. The project involved training 10 African Australian community leaders on the primary prevention and intervention of family violence. At the end of the training, the leaders were given funding to come up with an activity for their community where they would then teach their communities what they had learned. I was required to support the community leaders attend training and the help them to make action plans detailing an activity then make a budget and follow up to see where the leaders were at. I must say I enjoyed this bit of assignment.

Due to Covid-19, we had started to reduce physical contact with the community leaders which made it quite difficult to support a leader make an action plan on phone or making a budget for that matter. Later that week, social distancing rules were enforced and we had to leave the office space.

It was a big transition for African Family Services as they did not have the capacity to support my placement remotely. RMIT suspended all work integrated learning indefinitely which left me worried a bit. With the support of my program manager and course coordinator, I deferred my placement 8 days in. I was not too happy because I had adjusted into the routine and actually enjoyed what I had been doing. I was left hoping that the restrictions would be lifted so that I wouldn’t miss out on the Train The Trainer project.

I am very exited to start a new experience. Particularly for the fact that I anticipate an authentic Australian experience in the work force. It is a warm sunny morning in March, the month has just began and I am starting on a high note. I get to AFS offices located in La Trobe street which I find very convenient considering I am so close to the train station as well as my school. I am in the office a few minutes to 9am (thank God I am not late on my first day).

At the office, I met two staff members. I greeted them and took a seat next to the door. I introduced myself. The ladies at the office were very friendly and soon after a brief introduction from them, I felt at home. I was given a tour of the offices and thereafter was given induction documents to go over. I had a couple of documents to sign including OHS forms, Privacy and Confidentiality forms and a few more. Once that was done I had to do a GenVic module (It is a mandatory training package on family violence) and was issued a certificate upon completion.

The first day was essentially an opportunity to get familiar with the staff members, read about the organization and working out my schedule. Honestly, I was over the moon that I had found a place to host me for my IDR2.

Welcome to my blog, I am so thrilled to walk this journey. I intend to use this blog to document my experiences and learning while undertaking my IDRP course. I am enrolled in IDRP1 currently and will be taking the placement option for my IDRP 2 later next year.

Finding a placement host was no easy, I remember sending applications to at least 12 organizations. At some point, I was fed up sending application and decided to go physically to the organizations. Half the time I was turned away at the reception because I did not have an appointment but I was determined. As a last resort, I wrote an email to my teacher Debbie, she was delighted to hear from me and gave me a referral with African Family Services. She mentioned that in the course of her work, she had interacted with the directors of AFS and thought I would be a good fit. She gave me a glowing recommendation landing me an Interview with the Organization and the rest is history.

African Family Services was started by two amazing African Australian women, Lorraine Baloyi and Kapambwe Mumba. These women came to Australia as International students. Kapambwe has a background in social work and Lorraine in corporate law and project management. The two shared their experiences about how difficult it had been for Africans migrating and living in Melbourne to connect to mainstream services. For the most part, many did not know about different services available for them. This lack of information birthed the concept of an African Australian support service. The idea was executed in one of their lounge room and from it grew African Family Services.

After securing my placement and my WIL agreement was signed, I submitted a proposal on what I would want to research on for my placement. My proposal is about the invisible child. This refers to children within the context of family violence. In many cases, when case workers intervene in a case of family violence, they often concentrate on the adults involved (perpetrator and victim) and hardly do we hear about support services for the children. In my reflective research report at the end of my IDR2 will dig deeper into the invisible child and explore what can be done to make them visible in development practice.

Welcome to my blog. I am currently enrolled in IDRP1 at RMIT University. I have taken the option of a 40 day placement in a development organization called African Family Services. Sometime in July, I was struggling to find a placement host that fit my interests in women and children affairs in development. Eventually, i was fortunate to get a referral with them and my journey began.

African family services is an organization working with African Australian communities. They offer specialized services to African Australian communities in Victoria in early prevention and intervention support services in family violence, mental health, social inclusion as well as career development. These are achieved through outreach and case management support, professional development and mentorship programs as well as community capacity building workshops.

I must say I am exited and looking forward to working with them. My placement will hopefully start in March 2020.

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