UT Social Work Intern Program
The CapCityKids School of Social Work Internship Program combines graduate-level educational opportunities for social workers in-training with direct counseling and social services for children in need through a proven framework that is simple to develop, implement and administer.
Our program is a joint venture with the University of Texas at Austin's Steve Hicks School of Social Work Program, the Austin Independent School District (AISD) campuses, and CapCityKids (CCK), a non- profit 501(c)(3) organization created to help children facing homelessness defy the odds and receive a quality education.
“I’m thrilled to have played a role from early on in creating connections between CapCityKids, AISD, and the Steve Hicks School of Social Work. Everyone’s care and support for the kids really shows when you combine CapCityKids’s commitment to the program, the educational opportunities AISD provides for our interns, and the skills our master’s students contribute to those campuses.”
TANYA VOSS, MSSW
Designed to help a wide range of students from pre-K-to-21 years-of-age, the CapCityKids School of Social Work Internship Program provides direct counseling and social services to children by placing University of Texas social work graduate students at several AISD campuses, which provides UT students the learning environment and the internship hours they need to earn course credit. The hours count toward the minimum 900 hours of field study practicum learning they need for graduation, while allowing them a rewarding social work field experience.
By pairing the needs of graduate students to gain hours of valuable field experience with CapCityKids' funding and resources, one social worker can be employed to supervise 8-10 social work interns, who then provide approximately 6,000 hours of one-on- one counseling and student referrals per year.
“We are known and highlighted as a placement that gives very solid support, strong supervision, a lot of training and orientation, and really try to make it feel like a community, or a home."
SARAH MCCAFFERTY, LCSW-S
The interns effectively multiply social work services within AISD, as they increase the amount of long-term support services available to students and families. The interns provide more consistency in the students' lives in terms of allowing them to see the same person over multiple sessions that occur at regular intervals. In addition, CapCityKids staff can often match identified needs to existing community or government resources that may otherwise not be known or available to these children.
“Having a social work intern on our campus was a tremendous blessing, adding an additional layer of care and support in a year where many students desperately needed it.”
DEBRA AUSTRUM,
AISD SCHOOL COUNSELOR
CapCityKids provides stipends for the program supervisor; as well as a $2,500 in tuition stipends annually for each social work intern. As of January 2024, students are also eligible for up to $3,500 in additional funds through work study % the program is unique in that work study is traditionally only available to on-campus jobs; but the school of social work has partnered with the financial aid office to make the funds available for the students' off- campus work in AISD.