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A social worker's reflections on power, privilege, and oppression
Social workers working with oppression
Social workers working with oppression
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As a social worker, one must supply the same quality of aid to all regardless of identifying factors. In order to be a successful social worker, one must immerse themselves in communities of the oppressed and underprivileged. During my time as a Bachelor of Social Work student, I took the time to become familiar with the struggles that plague some of our most needy communities and made an effort to provide assistance to the struggles they face. By taking the time to familiarize myself with their struggles, I was able to establish a connection and appreciation for their lifestyle and understand better their needs and how to assist them with services and aid. Mobile has a large homeless population. Many of the homeless that live in Mobile are …show more content…
completely without income. New ordinances throughout the city make it unlawful for them to ask for aid to citizens on street corners or in public places; furthermore, many of the wooded areas in which they seek shelter have been cleared in efforts to remove them. Although there are services available to the homeless, many of them are not aware or lack the resource to access these services. The city of Mobile has seen the fault in the system relating to our homeless citizens and now offers an annual aid program called the “Mobile Project Homeless Connect” which provides aid in the form of services such as medical, legal assistance, dental and vision screenings, and access to housing assistance and mainstream resources including food stamps, state ID’s and Social Security Cards. The city provides free transportation for the homeless to and from the event. I have been a volunteer with this program for the past three years.
While assisting these citizens, I was able to speak with them and find where our system fails them. In many cases, these citizens are aware of the resources that are available but lack the resources needed to access them. In many cases, citizens are not able to make it to shelters and food banks in time before closing due to lack of transportation. Also, these citizens are unable to call for services due to the lack of phones. While volunteering in the program, I was able to assist these citizens’ access programs available both public and private through organizations near the area they reside. My time spent with the homeless community was both very humbling and eye opening to the struggles they face on a daily basis. It has helped me see that although services are available, citizens still have trouble accessing them, which is a flaw that needs to be …show more content…
addressed. Mobile is also a city full of history and community. Many of the downtown districts are inhabited by families that have lived there for decades. One community in particular which is widely overlooked in Mobile is the Africatown community. Due to the location, financial hardships and demographics relating to this community, its voice is often not heard or even overlooked. There have been many issues this community has struggled to overcome; however, one, in particular, is the storage of hazardous chemical waste near their community and close to the water surrounding it. I was able to assist the citizens of this community as well as our local chapter of the NAACP in a rally and march in protest to the storage of hazardous chemicals in their community.
During my time assisting in protest, I was able to connect with the citizens and see how unlike more affluent areas of downtown, their community is being neglected in revitalization. The city is using the low economic status as well as the crime rate to justify their decisions relating to this community. Many studies were conducted and it was found the chemicals stored in the tanks near the community are known to cause miscarriages, birth defects, mental retardation, neurologic, respiratory disorders, childhood leukemia, and cancer. Many of the citizens of this community lack the resources available to leave the community, and many others know it as home and do not want to leave. The Africatown community is the only downtown community that is being forced to endure these types of unsatisfactory living
standards. A successful social worker is one who is able to see a problem in a community or population and take a stand to provide aid to its citizens. It is my hope to be this type of social worker. If accepted into the University of Alabama’s MSW program I will be able to further my desire to help the overlooked and mistreated citizens of our society. In many cases, these citizens just need to know there are people that want to help them succeed. I believe that making the difference in the life of one citizen is a positive start in changing the outlook an entire community.
When driving through Pasco, it will not take long before the homeless can be spotted all around. They can be found asking for money on main roads, seeking shelter under abandoned buildings, and wherever they can find a place to rest. Homelessness is continually turning into a more noticeable and prevalent problem for the county, and it has been growing for years. According to TBO.com, “Pasco has the second highest rate of homelessness in the state…” (Kinsler,2011). This includes close to 4,500 men, women, and children; in addition to this figure, there are 3,000 men and children which can be added to this statistic (Kinsler, 2011). Such a concentration of dispossessed individuals in one county is quite astonishing. Since homelessness is altogether a widespread epidemic in Pasco, raising money to support
I knew I loved to help others but it was not until I was an emerging adult that I knew what my calling was. My devotion to improve the quality of life for those who are disadvantaged is one of the reasons I have chosen to pursue a Master’s in Social Work. After obtaining my masters, I plan on diversifying my masters by getting licensed and becoming a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. I would like to study social work because I feel it will lead me directly to one of the most emotionally fulfilling careers available, as well as giving me the chance to combine helping people 's mental well being with their physical
I first became interested in social work when I took a human rights course as part of my political science major requirements. Throughout the course, I was fascinated and disturbed by the historic oppression of many large groups in society, and I realized my interests lie outside of the political arena; thus, I double-majored in social policy & practice because of my desire to learn more about how to enhance human well-being, fight social injustice, and pursue social change. I soon realized I wanted to pursue graduate social work education in order to gain a more holistic understanding of social problems and human ailments and, in turn, better understand the best ways to fix them. My background in political science and social policy gives me a unique perspective on the field of social work, as I have gained immense knowledge on social issues, the law, and public policy that will be useful in my graduate school and professional endeavors to fight for social justice and human rights.
Homelessness in the United States has been an important subject that the government needs to turn its attention to. There has been announced in the news that the number of the homeless people in many major cities in the United States has been increasing enormously. According to United States Interagency Council on Homelessness reported that there was an estimation of 83,170 individuals have experienced chronic homelessness on the streets of the United States’ streets and shelters on only a single night of January 2015, which is a small decrease of only 1% from the previous year (People Experiencing Chronic Homelessness, n.d.). The United States must consider this subject that most of the people underestimate it and not pay attention
The National Association of Social Workers, NASW, considers the following as its six most core values; service, social justice, dignity and worth of the person, importance of human relationships, integrity, and competence. The value of service is considered to be a core value because offering help to those in need is a crucial goal for all of those looking to practice in the field of Social Work. These services can include, but are not limited to, addressing social problems, helping those in need, and volunteering their knowledge to those who cannot otherwise afford such help. Social Justice is also an important core value for a Social Worker to develop. As a Social Worker one will encounter many people from several different walks of life, no two cases will ever be exactly the same. Some of these walks of life can leave a client vulnerable, defenseless, exploited, oppressed, and troubled. Therefore it is important to learn what Social Justice is, and how to help people from falling victim to injustice. Dignity and Worth of the Person is one of the most important values that one should uphold. People who need the help of a Social Worker many, but not all, times feel powerless, embarrassed, and worthless because they feel as though they cannot control aspects of their life an...
Kenyon, Thomas. L. What you can do to help the homeless. New York: Simon & Schuster. 1991. Print.
As I said earlier, one of the problem among homeless population is lack of of access to healthcare. Many homeless people were not even aware of their health problems and some of them did not even care. As a public health nurse, being aware of your surrounding and understanding the need of the people is helpful in order to provide better care. Homeless population are very vulnerable and they need a lot support from the people. I had fun doing this volunteer and it made me happy hearing homeless people say thank you for our effort in feeding
For my service learning, I chose to volunteer my services to the Tulsa Day Center—Homeless Shelter. Prior to this experience, I had my own perception of the homeless community. As many Americans do, I perceived them as lazy, unsanitary, illiterate individuals who wanted everything handed to them. However, I quickly realized this was not the case. Growing up, I would encounter many homeless people, whether riding the bus or walking down the street. I would also see them sitting outside of stores waiting for patrons to ask for money.
My first obstacle in becoming the social worker I envision is myself. As a Southern woman, I was taught to pray, have good manners, to cook, not to display behaviors in public unbecoming of a lady, to honor my word, and that it was my duty to help those in need. These principles speak to the social work values of service by helping others, integrity in being honest and ethical in the things I say, and dignity and worth of a person, by treating others in a respectful manner.
According to Toseland and Rivas (2005), group dynamics are “the forces that result from the interactions of group members” (p. 64). These forces refer to either the negative or positive influences towards meeting members’ socioemotional needs as well as goal attainment within a group (Toseland & Rivas, 2005), like within my class work group experience. Some of dynamics that continue to emerge and develop in my group is the effective interaction patterns and strong group cohesion, which has generated positive outcomes and group achievement thus far.
Social justice is a core value in the social work field. We define social justice as, “all citizens would possess equal fundamental rights, protection, opportunities, obligations and social benefits (Kirst-Ashman & Hull, 2015, p. 29). Unfortunately, we understand there are many members in today’s society that are not receiving social justice. Some may not want help and believe that s/he is able to do it on their own and then there are the individuals that we may not know about that could really use our help. Our jobs as social workers is to help those who need help no matter if they are rich, poor, disabled, white, Hispanic, it does not matter because everyone should be treated equally. As NASW states, “The original mission of social work had much to do with championing the rights of society’s most vulnerable members, from children to homeless people to the physically disabled” (NASW: National Association of Social Workers, 2015, para. 1).
What alarmed me in this week’s chapter “Safety in Social Work Settings” was the 50 to 88 percent of social workers who have experienced workplace violence. This high percentage number made me think about my overall safety at future employment sites as a social worker. To be honest, I have not overthought about social workers being injured on the job until I read this chapter. “ Almost half of all nonfatal injuries in the United States from work-related assaults and violent acts occurred in health care and social services”(). In thinking about the different roles, social workers have in the community, hospitals, schools it makes sense that some of these environments would potentially become harmful and dangerous. As the text points out
When they are in need we must do everything in our power to make a change. Sometimes this involve advocating for them to see a change in social problems. The definition of a social worker states that they are trained person that carries out work with the aim of alleviating conditions of those in need (12). This often calls the need for social justice. After learning about social workers throughout history, I realize there’s multiple ways to help those in need (11). They’ve been able to implement social welfare for the public.
Social workers challenge social injustice. Social workers pursue social change, particularly with and on behalf of vulnerable and oppressed individuals and groups of people. The meaning of this value is to ensure that individuals going into the social work profession pursue change, most importantly with, on behalf of vulnerable and oppressed individuals, and with groups of people. Additionally, this social work value forces social workers to constantly affect social change primarily focused upon issues of poverty, discrimination, and other forms of social injustice by creating activities that seek to promote sensitivity to and knowledge about oppression and cultural and ethnic
This great nation of awesome power and abundant resources is losing the battle against homelessness. The casualties can be seen on the street corners of every city in American holding an ?I will work for food? sign. Homeless shelters and rescue missions are at full capacity. There is no room at the inn for the nation?s indigent. Anyone who has studied this issue understands that homelessness is a complex problem. Communities continue to struggle with this socio-economic problem while attempting to understand its causes and implement solutions. The public and private sectors of this country are making a difference in the lives of the homeless by addressing the issues of housing, poverty and education.