By Caitlin Krenn, as told to Madison Molner 

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We recently had the opportunity to speak with Caitlin Krenn, BASW’15 about her experience at Rutgers School of Social Work, her work as a clinical supervisor on a mental health and substance use support team, the intersection of social work policy in her studies and practice, and her thoughts on the 2021 Social Work Month theme. 

Can you tell us about your work at the transitional family shelter? How has your work changed since the pandemic began? 
Now an LCSW based in New York City, I am a clinical supervisor of a mental health and substance use support team, or thrive team, in a transitional family shelter in Brooklyn. Our facility houses over 200 families from all over the New York metropolitan area and beyond. Our team greets each new resident, evaluates for any community supports or psychotherapeutic interventions the family may need, and connects the family to services outside of the shelter, all while remaining a critical onsite social work resource for the family. 

Over the past few months, our work has intensified, as we have scaled up our efforts to ensure that the mental, emotional, logistical, and all other needs of our families are met. This includes responding to increased symptomatology of chronic mental health conditions, including and beyond depression, anxiety, and PTSD. In addition, our team has been responding to an increased need to assist families coping with domestic violence and substance use concerns. 

I understand you’re also a policy fellow with the Network for Social Work Management (NSWM). Can you tell us about your research with NSWM? 
Yes, I am a policy fellow with the NSWM where I am studying the intersection between the housing insecure population and civic engagement. Within my professional organization, I have partnered with the research and policy team to connect with clients and learn from their insight into the houseless experience and the larger systemic issues that cause homelessness. 

As a secondary component to the research, I am conducting interviews with community stakeholders to research and better understand the view of the housing insecure population from their perspective, and how it impacts their decision making, advocacy, orientation to the population, and overall functioning. This group includes elected officials, traditional voter engagement and education groups, community boards, and more.

Aside from your research, how do you see the intersection of social work and policy playing out in your everyday work? 
The intersection of social work and policy is one of the reasons I wanted to go in to this field in the first place. The idea is that social work functions on so many levels and there are social workers in every space. And if there aren't social workers in that space, there should be.

As I got into the work as a clinician, I very quickly realized that a lot of the problems I was seeing were the product of larger systemic injustices. I saw a lot of the same problems over and over and decided that if I wanted to make transformational change for these individuals, children, and families, there needed to be a component of my work that was devoted to policy and advocacy. 

My policy research and clinical work came to a head this summer as we were gearing up for the last presidential election, and I started having conversations around the shelter to make sure my clients understood how to vote and how to do it safely in the midst of a pandemic. Also, the census counting took place in 2020, so it was really important that we made sure everybody in the shelter filled out the census and that our community was resourced appropriately. Having these conversations, I learned about all of the misinformation, ambiguity, and confusion around voting. At first it was upsetting to me, and more so, I saw there was not investment from elected officials.  

Before I continued to make bold claims about voter suppression and rights, I wanted to write about and research it. So, I applied to the policy fellowship program and was accepted and am now doing research within my organization to understand what’s going on.

NASW’s theme for Social Work Month 2021 is “Social Workers are Essential.” What does this theme mean to you? 
That in moments of crisis, like what we’re living through now, social workers need to be present, to be prioritized, and to be ready for response. I think, for our field to be acknowledged for our expertise and as a perspective that needs to be part of overall emergency response, we need to be seen as essential. Social work voices and advocacy are crucial to the COVID-19 health crisis and in the epidemic of racial violence that our country has faced for centuries.