Payment for Placements (P4P): An Interview with L Tantay (they/them), P4P UMich Chapter

NASW Ohio Magazine • Interviewed by Danielle Smith • Winter 2024

Danielle: “Tell me about yourself.”

L: “My name is L Tantay, my pronouns are they/them. I am one of the co-leads for the P4P UMich School of Social Work chapter at the University of Michigan. Mo co-lead is Jaymie Tibbits (she/her). We both graduate in December 2024. We have a few other folks on our executive committee. We are a small and mighty team of people who are continuing to push this message forward that people deserve to get paid for the work that they do.”

Danielle: “P4P started at the University of Michigan. Can you please tell me why it was created and what the organization is doing now?”

L: “P4P was co-founded by students Matt Dargay and Arie Davey. They started their work during the pandemic during the fall semester of 2021. A lot of students were off campus doing their remote learning, so a lot of folks were feeling isolated but were still having to do their field placements. It was a lot. Folks started recognizing that they were not going to get paid for their work and had to figure out other means of surviving while having to do the 912 required hours of field education, going to classes, doing paid jobs, and everything to survive during a pandemic. And with a range of other political issues that were happening and the uprisings of union workers calling for a change in capitalistic systems, social work students saw themselves also needing to act....”

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