Community Empowerment from the Ground-up: A Student’s Experience

Recent university grad is grateful for the opportunity to apply the knowledge she learned at Abrigo

By Sara Moscatel

I am very grateful and proud to have completed my fourth year placement at the Abrigo Centre. As a new alumnus of Ryerson University’s Bachelor of Social Work program, I have had the opportunity to see myself grow from a student to a professional thanks to the learning opportunities and support the Abrigo team has offered me.

Initially, I came on board to shadow youth work and violence against women counseling but soon expanded my role into community development and government assistance programs. The opportunity to work at a multi-service agency has provided me the generalist education and experience I’ve sought, as well as experience working with multiple generations and age groups and often in my native tongue, Portuguese.

The ability to apply my knowledge and education in a cross-cultural and multigenerational capacity has challenged me to adapt and build on theoretical approaches to case management and counseling and interpret how they operate in a Luso-Canadian framework.

Since then, I believe I have become a strong advocate for community members and have been able to contribute back to the community that provided support to my family when my parents originally immigrated to Toronto in 1990.

I look forward to seeing Abrigo grow and adapt to new challenges and demographics of a changing Luso community in the Greater Toronto Area.