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Experience of Social Work students' placement with Eye Heroes

Posted on 21 April 2021

MA Social Work student, Katie Robinson, writes about her experience of being on placement with Eye Heroes, a Community Interest Company that focuses on teaching children about avoidable eye loss.

As of the 1st of March 2021, there was a new partnership formed between social work students at the University of York and Eye Heroes, a London-based non-profit organisation promoting eye health awareness. Avoidable sight loss is on the increase, thus it is crucial that organisations, such as Eye Heroes, work towards improving education about eye health. I am one of the social work students in this new team. There will be a multitude of experiences to come from this collaboration for the social work students.

For me, I am most excited to learn how to communicate successfully with different stakeholders, from children who will be involved in the workshops that I will be leading, right through to medical students who I will co-facilitate workshops with, and schools who will be hosting the workshops. The skills I Iearn will really strengthen my ability to communicate with professionals and clients alike, in preparation for future social work positions.

I spoke with the other social work students, Hannah, and Jack, to get a deeper understanding of why they are excited about their placement with Eye Heroes. Hannah said, “I am keen to finally use the theory I have learned at university over the last three years in practice, and to help Eye Heroes strive towards their current goal of raising awareness of the importance of eye health, especially among harder-to-reach communities.” Jack said that what he had been learning over the first weeks of working with Eye Heroes “provides me with a valuable insight into how a positive impact on health can be achieved with just a few dedicated volunteers.” Through these conversations with the social work students, there is a clear insight that this experience will develop our skills in a variety of ways in preparation for future careers within social work; this extends from communication skills to being able to use social work theory in practice.

The Project Lead of Eye Heroes, Liz Wilson, also has a background in social work. From previous experience with leading social work placements, Liz says, “Social work students always bring a lot of enthusiasm and hard work to their placements. It is always a pleasure to watch both the organisational development and student learning that takes place.”

Overall, it is evident that this experience is going to create many exciting challenges and learning experiences for all involved. It will also enable Social Workers to become social work professionals with a whole new skill set, and to support Eye Heroes in their current organisational growth.

If you would like any further information about Eye Heroes please visit their website.

Katie Robinson, MA Social Work student