Social work students look forward to their supervised field practice where they work in agency and organizational settings and apply what they have learned in the classroom to real life situations. Depending upon the population served by their field placement agencies, students might be providing social services to many different areas.

Some field practice environments include:

• aiding the elderly in nursing homes
• helping hospital patients make discharge plans
• working with parents to improve their parenting skills
• making home visits and documenting families’ needs
• implementing intervention plans for at-risk children
• interacting with adjudicated juveniles in a residential setting
• helping families deal with grief and bereavement
• assisting people with mental illness to handle daily living tasks
• working with women and children in a domestic violence shelter
• assisting homeless people to find shelter
• or developing programs for children at the Boys and Girls Club

For more than a decade, Siena Heights University social work students have worked with the Department of Human Services on service projects that address many pressing agency needs. In this field placement, students have the opportunity to work in various departments. The DHS offers students a variety of social work learning opportunities that address the Council on Social Work Education’s required generalist baccalaureate social work education outcomes.

Some opportunities to do field placements in Lenawee County include:

• Adrian Dominican Sisters
• Adrian Training School (juvenile female detention center)
• Big Brothers Big Sisters of Lenawee
• Boys and Girls Club of Lenawee
• Bixby Medical Center-Social Work Department
• Catherine Cobb Domestic Violence Program
• Communities In School Project
• Delphi Corporation
• Lenawee County Department of Human Services
• Family Counseling & Children’s Aid, Lenawee County
• Homeless Education Programs of Lenawee County
• Hope Community Center
• Hope Network, S.E.
• Hospice of Lenawee
• Lenawee Community Mental Health
• Lenawee County Jail
• Lenawee County Juvenile Court
• Lenawee Intermediate School District
• Lenawee Medical Care Facility
• Maurice Spear Campus (juvenile detention center)
• New Focus Club House
• South Central Michigan Works
• St. Joseph Academy
• The Daily Bread
• Wraparound Services

“The student intern from the Social Work program at Siena Heights University did a great job and was very helpful in bringing Associated Charities of Lenawee County up-to-date. The intern also wrote a grant that was funded for new technology for the agency. We have begun a successful transition and the student was instrumental in that process.”

Paula Trentman
Director, Associated Charities of Lenawee County

“The social work student from Siena Heights University did a wonderful job in her field placement here at New Focus Clubhouse. She has shown great enthusiasm in her work and has used her social work skills and knowledge to engage our members in positive relationships.”

Carol Wotring
Coordinator, New Focus Clubhouse