Internship Location: Madison WI
Organization Type: Private
Policy Areas: Social Welfare/Research
This summer I served as a project intern for the Lab for Family Justice and Wellbeing, a UW-Madison institution that exists within the School of Social Work. I worked primarily on a study called Pathways for Parenthood, spending my time recruiting participants, networking and connecting with local businesses and community organizations, and conducting interviews and surveys. I also was involved with the data entry and analysis components of the study, which focuses on providing recently-incarcerated fathers with an evidence-based program to help facilitate parenting skills and child connection. The parenting program, named Parenting Inside Out, is also currently being used in another lab project that I was a part of. The Wisconsin Department of Corrections is implementing the program inside several women’s prisons, allowing me and my teammates to create and conduct surveys measuring the program’s efficacy. During my internship, I learned an invaluable amount regarding how direct participant research is conducted, as well as how research institutions can engage healthily and productively with community non-profits. My time in the lab proved wonderfully community-oriented, both among my coworkers and within the Dane county area.