Good Neighbors aid community through COVID-19

Interns from UTRGV School of Social Work continue fieldwork amid pandemic

For the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, interns from the UTRGV School of Social Work are completing their fieldwork in-person at the Good Neighbor Settlement House in Brownsville. 

“We were really trying to keep our services going so the last thing we wanted was for somebody to get sick here at the Good Neighbor, so we stopped those services,” said Daniela Sosa, the community engagement and public relations manager for the Good Neighbor. “Then in, I believe March, maybe like May, the School of Social Work contacted us again and they asked us if we were allowing placements and at that time it seemed like most of us here on staff had already been vaccinated. The students who were going to be interning here, they themselves had also been vaccinated so that’s why we allowed the program to start.”

The Good Neighbor Settlement House was established in 1953 and has been in collaboration with UTRGV since 2015. It is located at 1254 E Tyler St. in Brownsville. 

“Good Neighbor Settlement House, Inc. is a nonprofit, multi-service agency dedicated to assisting the needy men, women, and children of Brownsville through programs that provide nutritious meals, clothing, showers, and support services,” according to its website.

Although made to restructure the way its services are offered, due to the pandemic, Sosa said the Good Neighbor Settlement House did not stop serving those in need.

“The Good Neighbor serves the people that live in extreme poverty, so we wanted to make sure that we were still offering everything to them just in a different capacity,” she said. “It definitely took [some time] to get used to this new model, but it has been very successful.”

Bertha Lozano,  a UTRGV social work senior and fall cohort intern, said she chose the Good Neighbor Settlement House because she enjoys helping the community and heard good things about the agency. 

“I had an idea that they do assist the homeless population, but I didn’t know exactly what type of services they offered the community,” Lozano said. “As a regular person you assume, ‘Oh, they just help with the soup kitchen,’ but they’re not limited to that. They have so many other programs available, not just for the homeless population but they do service the whole community, elderly people, anyone who needs the pantry services or anyone in need of basically a meal.”

She said the internship is helping her gain experience for the career she aspires to obtain in the future, which is aiding and assisting the elderly and disabled, and that she is not worried about COVID-19 putting a stop to this opportunity. 

“I am not worried at all because everyone is using their mask and I am responsible,” Lozano said. “So as long as I am able to use my mask, I am able to use the hand sanitizer and keep my proper distance, and I’m practicing all the safety protocols, then I don’t feel in danger or anything like that.”

Nelda Rodriguez, the director of Field Education for the School of Social Work at UTRGV, said that aside from the Good Neighbor Settlement House, some agencies stopped accepting student interns for the time being while others allowed students to continue their fieldwork either virtually, face-to-face or via telephone.

“In some situations where the agency remained open, the students were allowed to go and continue their client work with appropriate PPE [Personal Protective Equipment] and with distancing and basically following whatever protocols that the agencies had,” Rodriguez said. “So some agencies did ask for the students to stop doing the practicums when COVID came, but others, you know, because of the nature of what they do and how they service the population here in the Rio Grande Valley, the students were able to continue in the practicums.”

Rodriguez said she believes the Good Neighbor Settlement House is a good place for students to do internships and practicums, which is why the School of Social Work has had several students there since 2015.

“You have a homeless population, you know they have a lot of needs,” she said. “Most homeless shelters may not have all the resources to help the different people that go to the homeless shelter and so what we do is we have students go, work with the staff there and they identify any problems that perhaps the residents or the people who go there to the homeless shelter have.”

Aside from assisting in agencies such as the Good Neighbor Settlement House, Rodriguez said that students also complete projects at the internship sites. 

“Now the duration of time that the student is at the site is 15 weeks, just one semester,” she said. “Imagine, in one semester these students do a lot of work and those projects that they do have been very significant in helping create some sustainability at any internship site they are placed at.”

Students interning at these agencies must present their projects during a student forum at the end of the semester, Rodriguez said.

“They will present to faculty and other field instructors,” she said. “They will present the information on their project. They talk about the agency a little bit, why their project is important, what need is served and, of course, they have to evaluate whether their project was worthwhile and whether it worked or not. So, they present the pros and cons to their final project.”