Our Mission

Payment for Placements (P4P) is a nationwide movement calling for all social work students to be paid for their degree-required internships.

Social Workers across the country are fighting for dignity and respect on the job. –Senator Bernie Sanders.

1. We believe that all social work students should be paid for their internships.

2. We believe that paid internships will free students from financial hardship.

3. We believe that paid internships will make social work education more inclusive and accessible, reducing the barriers to obtaining social work employment. This, in turn, will make the social work profession more socioeconomically and racially diverse.

4. We believe that securing paid internships for all social work students across the U.S. is tied to struggles for racial, economic, and gender justice, particularly those led by labor movements. As such, we strive to act in solidarity with all oppressed workers fighting for dignity and better working conditions. 

5. We believe that the contributions of social work students are essential to our internship sites. Many student interns do the exact same or similar tasks as those performed by their sites’ paid staff; some internship sites could not function without them.

6. We believe that paying all social work students for their internships will be an historic investment in care work, which is a type of feminized and racialized work that employers often undervalue.

7. We recognize that underinvestment in care work affects many of our internship sites, too. So we will secure payment for all internships through a combination of university, local, state, and federal funding, and through policy change within legislatures and the CSWE.

8. We celebrate that every student body’s path to paid internships will be unique.

9. We act in solidarity with students at all degree levels and in other disciplines. We encourage them to join us in demanding paid internships.

10. We believe that winning paid internships is an important step toward solving the problems endemic to the profession of social work. It is the beginning, not the end, of holding the social work profession accountable to its stated values of racial, economic, and gender justice.

  • 1. We believe that all social work students should be paid for their internships.
  • 2. We believe that paid internships will free students from financial hardship.
  • Paid internships will make social work education more inclusive and accessible, reducing the barriers to obtaining social work employment. This in turn will make the social work profession more socioeconomically and racially diverse.
  • paid internships will make social work education more inclusive and accessible, reducing the barriers to obtaining social work employment. This in turn will make the social work profession more socioeconomically and racially diverse.
  • 4. We believe that securing paid internships for all social work students across the U.S. is tied to struggles for racial, economic, and gender justice
  • 4. We believe that securing paid internships for all social work students across the U.S. is tied to struggles for racial, economic, and gender justice
  • As such, we strive to act in solidarity with all oppressed workers fighting for dignity and better working conditions.
  • 5. We believe that the contributions of social work students are essential to our internship sites.
  • Many student interns do the exact same or similar tasks as those performed by their sites’ paid staff
  • We believe that paying all social work students for their internships will be a historic investment in care work
  • which is a type of feminized and racialized work that employers often undervalue.
  • 7. We recognize that underinvestment in care work affects many of our internship sites, too
  • ...we will secure payment for all internships through a combination of university, local, state, and federal funding...
  • 8. We celebrate that every student body’s path to paid internships will be unique.
  • 9. We act in solidarity with students at all degree levels and in other disciplines.
  • We encourage them to join us in demanding paid internships.
  • 10. We believe that winning paid internships is an important step toward solving the problems endemic to the profession of social work.
  • It is the beginning, not the end, of holding the social work profession accountable...
  • ...to its stated values of racial, economic, and gender justice.