The opportunity to “tangibly benefit” the community through her internship at the Women’s Legal Service WA (WLSWA) was empowering for University of WA Bachelor of Science student Katherine Scott.
During her 100-hour internship organised by the McCusker Centre for Citizenship, the Northbridge resident undertook projects that have the potential to assist WLSWA to expand their funding and services.
The 22-year-old’s main project was to identify possible funding sources for the not-for-profit organisation from philanthropic, corporate, and government sectors.
This included creating a portfolio of documents that could be used for funding and tender applications, and an analysis of the services WLSWA provided (using both quantitative and qualitative data) in comparison to other women’s community legal centres across Australia.
“My work in figuring out how WLSWA might be able to obtain more funds was essential to them being able to meet the needs of women in the community,” Ms Scott said.
“It was invigorating to be able to contribute to the wellbeing of people in the community by helping to enable the amazing lawyers at WLSWA to continue providing their important services to a vulnerable population of women.
“Coming from years of classroom learning and getting grades; doing work that I am competent doing and that tangibly benefits the community around me was empowering.”
WLSWA Office Manager Meegan Taylor said Ms Scott made a significant positive impact on its ability to determine potential sources of funding, and to understand the funding landscape in WA.
“Her comparative analysis of women’s community legal centres across Australia was very insightful … she highlighted gaps in our services that we would also like to incorporate, should we receive an increase in our funding.”
Ms Taylor, who supervised Ms Scott, said the McCusker Centre for Citizenship internship program enabled the WLSWA to undertake tasks and projects that they would otherwise be unable to complete.
“Our workforce and capacity are boosted, we are able to impart valuable knowledge to our interns and provide them with workplace and industry experience,” she said.