Nicole Hermes

Agency: Casa de los Niños

Term: Spring - 2004

I have had the privilege of completing my internship at Casa de los Niños. Casa de los Niños was established thirty years ago as the first crisis nursery in the United States. Casa’s mission is the “prevention, intervention, and treatment of child abuse and neglect by providing: comprehensive residential shelter care for children; supportive health, education, and outreach services; and advocacy on behalf of children and families.” This agency serves families in the Tucson community in need of a place for their child. The most common reasons children live at Casa are because they are in Child Protective Services’ (CPS) custody, were diagnosed as Failure to Thrive at home, or were medically vulnerable and required constant medical supervision.

Within the agency, I intern specifically with the Social Work department. My main responsibility is to assist with visits on-campus between parents and their children. These visits occur for an hour twice a day, and I monitor the interaction between children and their visitor to make sure that the adult complies with visit regulations and to help when they need any assistance with their children. My other many responsibilities at Casa include the following: faxing social work and medical documents to children’s CPS case managers, completing and managing children’s files, organizing discharged children’s files in record keeping, updating social work concerns on children’s electronic file, assisting in intake and discharge of children to residency, attending the preschool and elementary school staffings and individual children’s staffings where staff, CPS workers and Casa social workers discuss problem behaviors and updates about children.

I decided to complete my internship at Casa because it is known throughout the community for providing some of the best care for children in CPS custody. I completed a practicum at CPS, and visited Casa several times while working with them. I wanted to be able to work here to help these children. I enjoy working with children, and someday hope to work with children who have been abused or neglected. This is an opportunity to understand what kinds of problems arise as a result of their family situations. After attaining my bachelor’s degree, I aspire to complete some actual social work experience before attending graduate school to receive a master’s degree in either counseling or social work. My long-term career goals include becoming either a child counselor or establishing a group home that would hopefully be similar to the organization of Casa.

I have learned an exceptional amount from this internship. I have realized how much children love and desire to have their family as a part of their lives, despite horrible situations that they may have had to endure. As a result of this longing, I have learned how critical and necessary family visits are to the self-esteem and demeanor of children. I have further realized that how a child responds to me as a “social worker” should not be taken personally, and that a child is going to act however they feel like acting based upon their personality and previous life experiences. An example of how I learned not to take children’s reactions personally was when a child threw a temper tantrum after his visit had ended early and I was to take him back to his group. This child wanted to spend more time with his sibling, and no amount of negotiation would alter his decision. In the end, I had to leave the child with another, more experienced worker in order to take other children back to their groups after visits. After this experience I felt that I had failed in not being able to get the child to come with me back to group. Since this situation, I have learned that this child acts this way after every visit, with every social worker, and that my supervisor said that I successfully did what was required of me.

I would advise any student interested in working with children to intern at Casa. The personal growth is rewarding, and it is very exciting to observe these children develop and see when they are discharged back to their family. An internship can also help you decide if you are pursuing an appropriate career field. Furthermore, by completing an internship through the Institute for Children, Youth & Families, you are able to process your feelings about your internship in journal entries and learn specifics about your organization that you may not otherwise discover. This internship has helped me explore my career goals in more detail and working at Casa has been one of the most fulfilling and challenging experiences I have had working with children.

University of Arizona | College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
School of Family and Consumer Sciences | Family Studies and Human Development

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