Lindsey Fritsch
Master’s student,
School of Social Work
When Lindsey Fritsch began working toward her master of social work degree in 2008, she planned to study women’s mental health. But her internship experience at the Minneapolis-based Tubman Family Alliance shelter for abused women and children sparked a fascination with family dynamics.
At Tubman, Fritsch acts as an advocate, helping her clients—who are urban, mostly low income, and ethnically diverse—find services and secure housing so they can leave the shelter. Many also need help dealing with joblessness, poor language skills, and mental health issues.
“I see the children one-on-one to determine how community living is going,” she says. “But we also do goal-planning with the women, and provide parent groups and a holistic program for the abusers, who are often men.”
Fritsch notes that the economic downturn has made it significantly more difficult for the women to find affordable housing. Jobs have become equally scarce, she says.
“What we’re now seeing in domestic violence shelters is chronic homelessness,” she says. “Women who were raised in shelters are returning with their kids. To them, it’s a safe haven.”
Fritsch says the social work program has directly prepared her for the individual client interventions and the group/family support she provides at Tubman. Now the internship is building her confidence and skills to work on her own. “You have the opportunity, through supervision with a licensed clinical social worker at your organization, to try new things, make mistakes, reflect with your supervisor, and then try again,” she explains. “It is a wonderful learning experience that I wish more people had the opportunity within their professions to take advantage of the [kind of] support that is provided.”
Fritsch, who is also a graduate research assistant at the School of Social Work’s Minnesota Center Against Violence and Abuse, expects to graduate next year and earn her license as a general social worker.
—B.M.