Meet Jenni Lord, Imaginif’s newest staffer. Jenni is a third year Social Work student undertaking a thirteen week placement at Imaginif. In Australia, a Social Work degree is four years duration and has two placements: thirteen weeks in third year and sixteen weeks in forth year. Placements are for students to practice what they have already learnt, to link theory to practice and to continue learning about their nominated areas of interest.

While at Imaginif Jenni will undertake a range of learning activities, including learning about Social Workers and technology and using blogging as a platform for social consciousness raising. Jenni will be a guest blogger here from time to time, but most excitedly, Jenni has today raised a blogger blog: swagscairns. Well done Jenni. I think it is a great achievement for a first day of placement.

I have been an active member of SWAGS (Social Workers Accessing Group Support) since before my third child was born. She is now 14. SWAGS began as the “Chardonnay Club”. A core group of us met fortnightly and peer debriefed with plenty of Chardonnay. In more recent years, the group formation became more formal, took on a more formal name (SWAGS) and grew in numbers. SWAGS is now a socio-educational group that meets monthly and shares knowledge and social issues via presentation and social networking.

Deni Tonkin, Social Worker at Safe Kids, remains the social glue of SWAGS. Since its inception (as the Chardonnay Club) Deni has kept the group alive, motivated and focused on social issues. Well done and thank you Deni. Deni and I went to uni together and have remained friends since the day we met. Deni thinks she is scared of blogs and technology….Deni, we are here to show you how easy and beneficial it is. Crack the keyboard girlfriend because you are about to be faced with just how techno savy these young Social Workers are.

Please help me to make Jenni feel welcome and part of the wider Imaginif virtual family. If you are worried that Jenni may be too techno focused and not get enough practice experience, stop that worrying now! Jenni will exit Imaginif with excellent blog and social networking skills AND with best practice in dealing with people affected by sexual violence. What can she expect doing her placement with me!