Part of my role with Para Los Niños is to train and supervise master’s level social work trainees by equipping them to work with our students with social emotional learning. Our student population is primary and secondary students who reside in or around the Skid Row area in downtown Los Angeles. The goal of using this workshop during my training with the trainees was to help them identify who they are as social workers and what fueled their fire to go into this line of work, what was their calling.
During the workshop the trainees had different tools to work with, markers, crayons, color pencils and pastels, in order for them to select the tools that they felt most comfortable with. Each trainee had the opportunity to share their experience while becoming vulnerable about what led them to the field of social work. The trainees were able to build stronger relationships with each other and it gave me a greater understanding of how to support them through their journey here at PLN.
The trainees stated to love the activity and they each had the opportunity to share how they can utilize this workshop in sessions with individual counseling or when working in small groups.
