My name is Gemma Harrington and I recently finished my MA in Laws from University College Dublin. I held the position of communications and fundraising intern at MLRC from February to May 2020. I was interested in doing this internship because I had heard of MLRC and the amazing legal work they do in the area of homelessness and housing law and I was keen to learn more.
I began my internship on 23 February after participating in a training day. I was warmly welcomed by the MLRC staff who were very friendly and helpful to me through-out my whole experience. Whenever I needed any assistance or guidance the whole team were ready and willing to help. I had a wide range of tasks and responsibilities. A large part of my work comprised of finding and applying for grants and fundraising opportunities and ensuring that the deadlines for such applications were met.
I was responsible for keeping MLRC social media platforms up to date. A large part of this work was ensuring that we had blogs posted regularly on the MLRC website to provide up to date and regular updates on the work of the organisation. I thoroughly enjoyed this aspect of my duties as I was given the opportunity to post some blogs myself on interesting topics.
The best part about interning with MLRC was learning about the work they do. I had the opportunity to attend one of the legal advice clinics which was an eye-opening experience. Hearing the serious struggles that families and individuals are going through on a daily basis showed me why organisations like the MLRC are so important and how crucial the support of the MLRC is to their clients. I also had the opportunity to attend the MLRC initial befriending session. It was great to learn more about this service that they provide and meet the befrienders and learn about what inspired them to volunteer.
Due to Covid-19 I spent a portion of the internship working remotely, however, the MLRC staff were very supportive and kept in touch with me via email and included me in conference calls so that I was kept up to date on what was going on.
Interning at the MLRC was a very rewarding and valuable experience. It was so great to get to work in such a positive environment with such a wonderful team. I would like to extend my thanks to whole MLRC team for being so welcoming and for being so helpful throughout the whole experience.
