I’m a third-year social work student at RGU and I’ve been on placement at CFINE for the past 12 weeks. I have an interest in working with children and young people with additional learning needs and disabilities after I graduate.
The SAFE Team helps people to access benefits and supports them with their finances, the SAFE Team also refers to other services and offers a wide range of support after making assessments of individual circumstances.
My time on placement with the SAFE Team has given me the opportunity to work in a friendly environment with advisors who not only care for their service users' best interests but also support and encourage each other. I always feel that I can talk to any of the advisors if I have questions or concerns, or even just to have a chat! I have learned valuable skills in facilitating and recording casework. I have been developing my communication skills and confidence in working with new people, like beneficiaries, as well as the rest of the team at CFINE .
I've been able to participate in outreach work where I have met with other organisations and networked to make connections and build relationships that could support my practice in the future. Being part of meetings to help people to access benefits gave me a fuller perspective of who could need them, which could be anyone from any background. Seeing how close most of us really are to poverty and homelessness is sobering and has taught me to be mindful of finances and to be aware of how this impacts people in my practice going forward.
I've learned a lot about food insecurity in Aberdeen and got to see how it really impacts people. I’m not local to the area so seeing how many people are in poverty suprised me. This is especially because of how wealthy parts of Aberdeen are, gaining a better understanding through CFINE of this disparity has filled me with the drive to work to make changes in the welfare system, I’m even considering CFINE for my dissertation!
-Aimee
