Caribbean Internship Project – Providing Opportunities for Student Internships

Caribbean Internship Project

The Caribbean Internship Project is a partnership between the Centre for Population, Community and Social Change (CPCSC), an outreach thrust of Dept of Sociology, Psychology and Social Work, and the Caribbean Child Support Initiative (CCSI), an integrated programme out of CARICAD (Caribbean Centre for Development Administration) established in 2004 to improve the care environment for Caribbean children and their families. The CIP, which is managed by Mrs. Aldene Shillingford, lecturer in the Social Work Unit, matches the resources of regional tertiary institutions (three UWI campuses, the University of Guyana and the University of Belize) to the needs of child-focussed development agencies in the Caribbean, through the provision of student interns for 12- 24 week internships. The CIP is principally funded by the Bernard van Leer Foundation, the Environmental Foundation of Jamaica, UWI (Mona) and with support from the St. Augustine and Cave Hill campuses.

Student interns have worked with a range of organisations and social programmes including the Roving Caregivers Programme, (RCP), The Family Learning Programme (FLP) and the Early Childhood Health Outreach Programme (ECHO). They have been able to enhance the service delivery of these agencies, build and strengthen their capacity through the transfer of knowledge and skills, and improve the linkages between families and these community based social services. Students have also benefited tremendously from the practical learning opportunities and in some instances, accreditation towards their degree programmes. During this past year, 22 students from the Department of Sociology, Psychology and Social Work, CARIMAC and the Department of Educational Studies completed 26, 12-week internships across the Caribbean region.