Mike Dooley once said that at this very moment, “there are people only you can reach…and differences only you can make.” Being a social worker this single quote is true every single day, because as a social worker we are able to reach those we interact with on a daily basis and make a difference in their lives. In the state of Florida, there exists a place called The Children’s Home Society that works with children and families. Very similar to a state’s department of children, this organization strives to help all children who enter their doors. As a social worker, like Mike Dooley said these are individuals only we can reach and working towards making a difference in any child’s life is something that social workers strive to do on a daily …show more content…
basis (Children's Home Society of Florida: Who We Are, n.d.). These children come from anywhere in both the state and the world and need people they can trust to be there, one of the largest minorities in the United States, the Hispanic populace, faces this every day. While all cultures are important, there is a need to place more emphases on the Hispanic population due to their continued rapid growth within the country. Therefore, social workers can play an integral part within this culture, which can enable us to better help these children and families as they transition into the United States. The Children’s Home Society of Florida is a foster child and adoption service that exists within the state. They began in 1902 in Jacksonville, Florida and have since moved their main location to Winter Park, Florida and have fifteen offices total within the state. The original one room location in Jacksonville still exists but has expanded into a much larger operation. Originally the Children’s Home Society was founded due to the large number of children who boarded the Orphan Trains near the turn of the 20th century. These children were in need of finding a home; and while some quickly found a home, others bounced from city to city (Children's Home Society of Florida: Who We Are, n.d.). At this time in Florida, public welfare was nonexistent and there were few laws to help protect children. With the help of Reverend D.W. Comstock, this society became established on November 17, 1902. At this time it had a staff of only two and a budget of $400. Since then they have developed a partnership with the state welfare system and department of children and families in order to aid in both foster care and adoption cases (Children's Home Society of Florida: Who We Are, n.d.). Their mission is simple: Embracing Children. Inspiring Lives (Children's Home Society of Florida: Who We Are, n.d.). Their goal is to focus on the child and what best benefits that child within their present situation. The ultimate goal in every foster child case is reunification with a parent(s). However, while this happens the child must be placed in foster care and their hope is to find a family member or close family friend that the child could be placed with. By providing some form of familiarity to the child it can help improve the present situation. This also helps establish relationships between the social worker and the child, when they are aware that the goal is to put the family unit back together. Nonetheless, sometimes this is not possible and other alternatives must be looked at. This means placing the child with a permanent guardian, which still means that the parent could eventually work to get parental privileges back for that child. This could also mean permanent separation for the child and that result in parental rights being terminated and adoption being considered. Another service they provide is adoption services to both couples looking to adopt and individuals looking to place their child for adoption (Children's Home Society of Florida: Who We Are, n.d.). These services can vary from open adoptions to where the birth parent(s) remain in some form of contact with their child and the adoptive parents. It can also mean a closed adoption is selected and there is no contact between the child and the birth parents once the adoption is completed. Finally, they also offer therapeutic services for the child and their families. This can be done to help promote a positive relationship among the present family. It can also be done if there are allegations of abuse and the child needs someone to talk to. These services are provided as needed and are available in most cases. They can also perform court mandated therapy if it is deemed necessary (Children's Home Society of Florida: Who We Are, n.d.). Since this program works with the state of Florida to help provide these services, their demographic base is very broad. They provide services to any child in need in terms of foster care services. If the state has removed a child from their present home and deemed it necessary to place the child into foster care, then the Children’s Home Society has the ability to take the case over and provide their services. They also work with a broad base in terms of adoptive services and are willing to help anyone who needs this form of assistance (Children's Home Society of Florida: Who We Are, n.d.). The Children’s Home Society of Florida is also able to work across state lines if necessary. This broadens their demographic area even more, as it allows them to have a broader reach on who they assist. This is only done when trying to find a safe place for a child to be placed in. It is also only done when it comes to family placement. If family or close friends are not an option than foster parents can be looked at for a child to be placed and these families can come from any demographic providing they meet the necessary requirements to become foster parents in the first place (Children's Home Society of Florida: Who We Are, n.d.). When it comes to demographics, social workers are involved with a broad base of clients. These clients can come from any culture and any background. However, one of the largest growing populations in the United States is the Hispanic population. Some believe that the Hispanic population will quickly outgrow the Caucasian population as time progresses (Shawna et al., 2011, pp. 130-140). This makes the Hispanic population of significance when it comes to working in the social work field. A driving force behind why the United States is seeing a large increase in numbers when it comes to this population is due to a socio-economic discourse. Essentially this is how families decide to relocate based upon present socio-economic conditions they are facing. Many within the Hispanic community feel there is greater opportunity for their families and themselves if they left their home country and moved to someplace like the United States. The idea to gain certain freedoms they may not have or make a better income then they could if they were to stay helps to draw them in. Nonetheless, social workers must be able to handle the cultural differences that exist and understand them. In a sense they must be culturally competent when it comes to working with Latinos (Martinez-Brawley, 2011, pp. 19-20). The ability to be culturally competent when working with Latinos can enable social workers to provide effective access and treatment delivery to this population. According to the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Code of Ethics the level of importance placed on cultural competency is underscored (1996). This means that they fall lower on the importance scale when working with individuals from this group. Being able to be sensitive to different cultural variables can allow us to work better within these groups. The important thing to remember is that each culture has their own differences within the culture. It is important to note these differences, along with the influences that exist within the culture, when working with individuals in them. Being culturally sensitive can enable social workers to create relationships to better understand the needs of their clients. When individuals of Hispanic dissent come to the United States, they may face acculturation. This is defined as the changes experienced by an individual as the direct result of being in contact with other cultures. How this experience first occurs can create an impact on an individual for their entire life. If this experience is bad, then social workers must work to change this view and allow for the client to see that not everyone within that specific culture is that way. They must also understand that this experience could be in misunderstandings that exist due to acculturation and the language barrier issues that could exist (Furman et al., 2009, pp. 170-174). Along with acculturation, a similar term arises called social-mirroring.
This is essentially when an individual from a specific culture attempts to mimic or mirror a different culture. This occurs when someone from one culture relocates to a new location. In an attempt to fit in, some Latinos have been reported as social-mirroring. They believe by doing so it will enable them to transition easier into their new surroundings. However, they have to deal with finding their identity as a result since they essentially lose it during the transition to American culture (Fong, 2004, pp. 1-2). Similar to social-mirroring is the strong family bond that exists within the Hispanic culture, as a result of this families lean heavily on their inner-family network, this means when a social worker becomes involved within a family they become an extension of the family. This means that a “professional” relationship should not be utilized when it comes to working with these families. Having a more open personal relationship can enable a strong social worker-client bond that may not exist in a professional relationship (Phillips, 2009, pp. 50-51). Social workers serve as an integral part when it comes to the Hispanic population in the United States. They are individuals who can quickly become more like family than with other cultures and are able to help transitioning families adapt to their constantly
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For the purpose of this paper the social worker interviewed is Ronnita Waters, MSW, RCSWi; she is currently an operations manager at the Center for Family and Child Enrichment (CFCE). The issue or area where her advocacy skills are practiced is within child welfare. Mrs. Waters mentions to the interviewee “I always wanted to work with children, then eventually for children.” when asked what developed her interest in this area of social work. Furthermore, before she became an operations manager, the social worker was an adoptions supervisor, overseeing adoption case managers and ensuring the proper implementation of policies such as the sibling placement policy and adoption policy. In addition, before achieving the role of supervisor, she was
It is important to include cultural issues in the helping process to be more effective. We also need cultural competence because the U.S. is becoming more diverse. Therefore with diversity comes different beliefs, norms, and values. Eurocentric values dominate sciences and began cultural universals which puts the clash of dominate and non-dominate cultural behaviors in motion. In 1996 the NASW Code of Ethics increased the recognition of cultural competence. It is important to know diversity exist within ethnic and cultural groups because social workers need to know that relationships between helping professionals and clients may be strained. This happens because of the distrust between groups. Another important aspect is that the professional realizes their own values, biases, and beliefs. The reason for this is because they must value diversity to start with and understand the dynamics of difference. Culturally competent practitioners have to go through developmental process of using their own culture as a starting point to meet all behaviors. Striving for cultural competence is a long term process of development. The literature on cultural competence is theoretical and conceptual. They have not been evaluated in a systematic way. Roughly there are 2 million Native americans in the U.S. Which survive decimating disease, over-repressed in child welfare system, suffer from health problems, and are among the poorest people in the United States. Working with them clearly falls within the social work clearly mandate to serve vulnerable and oppressed clients. However, we do not know how many people from this group is actually receiving help from social workers. Even though it is important to train social workers to provide care in th...
Many children across the country are wrongfully removed from their homes everyday by workers with an anti-family mindset, who use removal as a first resort not a last. It is not only detrimental to the child’s well-being, but is also immorally abusive to the child. The goal of the child welfare system is to promte safety, permanency, and wellness among all children.
As Kirst-Ashman and Hull Jr (2012, pp. 453-454) reminds us, “the family is central to Hispanic culture and is hierarchical in structure. That is the father is the primary authority figure (Devore & Schlesinger, 1996). Furthermore, scholars inform us that many Hispanic fathers appear somewhat aloof from the family, especially the children as it is the father’s role to pursue instrumental roles such as earning a living. Often, this results in the father being less likely to express emotional support (Kirst-Ashman & Hull Jr., p. 454). Understanding these concepts of the Hernandez family culture as well as asking questions about their family members depicted on the genogram can aid me to become more informed. This can be a very positive step in the right direction in building a relationship of mutual respect and trust as in our respective roles as client and social work professional enhancing our ability to work together to determine the best intervention
The social safety net has grown to include and protect a diverse group of people of all ages. Social workers have become vital to older persons who need long term care, persons struggling with addictions, and communities that are devastated by natural disasters, acts of terrorism, and violent tragedies
Child welfare system was originated with the goals that social workers would try and alleviate poverty and its impact; however as the years have passed, the child welfare system turned into a child protection system directed toward investigating abuse and neglect, and removing children from families and placing them in foster care, and is no longer prepared to assist in resolving the problems of child poverty (Lindsey, 2004). Child welfare system has been developed around the residual approach which demands that aid should be given only after the family is in crisis or other support groups have failed to meet a child’s minimal needs. However, over the years, there have been different focuses for the child welfare system, whether it involved
The family unit is recognized as an importance in the field of social work. If a family is in need of temporary assistance, social workers are in full support of this, because
Social work as a profession strives to help the welfare of those within the community whether its persons or families through advocacy. Often times clients are those who may be vulnerable and disadvantaged. Social workers aim to help people fulfill basic needs in their everyday lives and assist them by providing beneficial resources and intervention counseling. They do more than just help them in their current situation, it’s about helping them to survive and set attainable goals to live a fuller and better life for themselves, and most time for their families.
Social workers play a very important role in many situations. Most people can only help an individual up until a certain point then they have no clue what to do to help the individual. A social worker comes up with a plan to help an individual that cannot help themselves. Without social workers many individuals will not know how to manage certain situations. They will come up with an idea that they believe is suitable and move on without thinking about it. Social work has come a long way from when it first began. Comparing then and now, social work is much better and very well organized. The people that are in need whether they are mentally ill or someone that cannot support themselves, are being taken care of properly. It is known that years
This study is expected to provide social workers with information by examining what social workers do post-graduation to help them remain culturally competent. Social workers will be in a position where they can understand barriers/obstacles that make it difficult to engage in the professional development regarding this topic.
Working with others and improving own learning and performance are highly essential skills in social work. In this essay I will reflect on how well I have developed these two skills and what I need to do to improve them.
In social work, a social worker has to come to the client’s level and start from there. The client does not have to come to the social workers level. In order for this to happen the social worker has to know the importance of culture, race, gender, sexual, diversity and other forms of diversity to make the best decision for choosing a type of intervention. Understanding the client’s culture, race, gender, sexual diversity and other form of diversity is important because they affect each person differently. An example, Roberto is Latino and in their culture they believe in machomism, so this is something his social worker needs to know when addressing Roberto or someone of the Latino culture. Hispanic women bring machomism
Over the course of the semester, I have learned a variety of many things regarding social work. These things vary from learning how to help oneself to understanding how to help others. Not only were the textbooks very useful, but also the materials that furthered this textbook learning. The in class presentation, activities, and guest speakers gave us insight and a different perspective on the material we were learning. I feel like this course has given me a good foundation and prepared me as a future social worker (1).
My understanding about the social work profession is one that works with a diverse group of people to better their well-being in all aspects. Social workers requires: responsibility, passion, and knowledge. The social worker has to understand their own personal cultural values, beliefs, and appreciate the multicultural identities of different people. The profession of social worker requires a lot of skills because they have different tasks and responsibilities. They are aware of social policies and programs for the diverse clients advocating.
families, and communities to enhance their individual and collective well-being. Social workers are change agents and because of that, they aim to help people develop their skills and abilities to use resources provided to them to strengthen and improve their lives and communities to resolve problems. One of the main goal of social workers is to improve the well-being and lives of the most vulnerable populations, fight against poverty, unemployment, domestic violence and the underserviced population by emphasizing on the person-in-environment and social justice model. The social work profession, considerers the individuals’ internal and external struggles, while working with the individuals to examine their relationships, family, work environment, community, and other things that might impact them and identify ways to help address problems and challenges.