Steve James graduated from Southern Illinois college; he lost contact with Stevie, so ten years later he went back to Pomona, Illinois, to search for him. Steve decided to make a documentary about what is happening with Stevie and what transpired with the little boy he once knew. Steve was his sponsor in the Big Brothers program; he recognized that Stevie was a “troubled” youth. Stevie, life was of neglect, violence, and abandonment. The pain that Stevie is feeling and imposing, the mayhem of his family life of their past and present. Stevie’s mother Bernice was a victim of abuse by her alcoholic father growing up in the “back hills of West Virginia” (S James, 2002), Bernice, continue the cycle of abuse with her only son who she didn’t want; …show more content…
she found out she was pregnant with a married man child. She became abusive towards Stevie at a young age. Due to her neglect and abusive behavior Stevie, was taken away from Bernice (S James, 2002). Stevie, been exposed to multiple foster care homes and group homes. Within a short time, Stevie lived in every group home in Southern Illinois. Eventually, he served time in a juvenile correctional center where he was a victim of sexual abuse and beaten up regularly by other children in the facilities (S James, 2002). His elderly step-grandmother Verna would take him in between stints in the foster care system. Verna and Stevie ostracized his mother; he verbally expresses that he can’t stand his mother and maybe someday he will kill her. At the age of 23, he married a woman who was 15 years his senior. The marriage did not last long due to the domestic violence in their relationship. Brenda, his step-sister lives next door to Stevie. She assists him with his monthly disability check. Brenda and her husband live next door to Stevie in their own trailer home (R. Chadha, 2011). When Brenda was younger, Stevie molested her, although she doesn’t like to speak about the incident. Stevie has the past with other misdemeanor and felony charges. Goals/Proposed Interventions Due to Steve’s multiple presenting issues, this writer recommends attainable, measurable goals for Stevie as part of his treatment plan. Establishing three major phases of the helping process. “Phase I: Exploration, engagement, assessment, and planning. Phase II: Implementation and goal attainment. Phase III: Evaluation and termination” (D. Hepworth, R Rooney, G. Rooney, K. Gottfried, 2017). Familiarize Stevie, with the groundwork of his problems and promoting problem-solving skills. Evaluating, his environmental factors, and identifying relevant resources. Work on goals to be accomplished and to assist alleviating problems; find tools that will support to control his anger issues, and create a structured plan. The three specific goals for Stevie to attain during counseling. Working on his relationship with his Mother, by setting goals and working on tools to work on neutralizing his negative feelings towards Bernice. Schedule individual therapy sessions, between the two of them, eventually schedule supervised joint meeting between Stevie and his mother to talk about their feelings for each other. Continue the meetings, speaking to a social worker or clinician will help with his healing (D. Hepworth, R Rooney, G. Rooney, K. Gottfried, 2017). Treatment for his history of sexual abuse, as a victim and perpetrator. Talk about his experiences in the juvenile correctional centers where other inmates victimized him. Assist him, to learn how to talk about his past, the anger and the hurt he is expressing through his negative actions. Support Stevie in understanding and recognize he committed a crime against his sister and his cousin’s daughter. To take ownership of his behaviors by hurting his family members mentally, and physically. Empathy and emotions should be discussed and understood by the end of his therapy sessions. Key Strengths & Obstacles Stevie’s step-sister Brenda and her husband support him mentally, and financially. Stevie and Brenda weren't raised together; they have a good relationship, Stevie enjoys going fishing with them, he usually tags along on their weekly road trips. Brenda’s husband treats him right except he does not trust Stevie alone with his wife. Sometimes Stevie can become out of control and violent towards Brenda when she denies him money for partying. Stevie has a history of when he drinks alcohol he becomes a mean and rowdy drunk and gets into trouble with the local police.
Another family member he is close to is his Step-Grandma Verna, who allows Stevie to live with her. Verna, took Stevie in between his foster care homes and eventually his in and out stays at the state juvenile homes. Verna never like Stevie’s mom, she never hid her feelings and verbally expressed her hatred to Stevie at a young age, reminding him of what she done to him as a baby. When Stevie isn’t helping with chores and repairs around the house. He can be found snake hunting, fishing, or hanging out with his Aryan brotherhood friends. Currently, Stevie is in a relationship with Tonya Gregory, who is mentally challenged. She confesses that she loves Stevie, because she understands him. She is aware of his pending charges and disagrees with him of being innocent, she believes that he is guilty and will be prosecuted for the crime. Stevie was placed with the Huber family; they were his foster parents, until the age seven years-old. They gave Stevie emotional and physical love and treated him as though he was one of their own children. He was very happy living with them and he always showed respect to them. They knew from the beginning that Stevie was a troubled youth who was experiencing abuse from other children and suspected that there was even some sexual assault happening to him. Catching him acting out inappropriate with other kids. They relocated to another state for employment and lost touch with Stevie. Sadly, Stevie is a child that went through the foster care system, survived of what he has been through. During his stays at the different youth detention centers; Stevie was seen by several counselors and psychiatrists to assist with his problems that were never solved. His attorney who is covering his case suggests for Stevie to seek out professional counseling services. He declines the offer due to when he was younger counseling
didn’t help him and he will face his condemning on his own. Ethical Practice Social work is base on respect for the inherent value and dignity of all people. “Defending each person’s physical, psychological, emotional and spiritual integrity and well-being” (International Federation of Social Work, IFSW, 2012). Including the principles of human rights and human dignity. • Respecting the right to self-determination • Promoting the right to participation • Treating each person as a whole • Identifying and developing strengths, (IFSW, 2012). Social Justice and human rights were stripped away from Stevie at a young age when he entered the foster care system that eventually led to the juvenile system. Diversity Issue Stevie’s charges of being a child molester to an eight-year old girl child, it takes a moment for me to try to understand his behavior and why he doesn’t want to acknowledge his crime. Understanding Stevie being a troubled youth, and his environment was not caring and supportive to him. Stevie cognitive ability hinders his understanding of the severity of the crime he is accused of committing. With Stevie having a disturbed past and still not able to disconnect himself from trouble. Stevie is friends with the local Aryan brotherhood. One of them reassured Stevie if he is sentenced and goes to jail, he will set him up with another Aryan Brotherhood in prison, to join their gang for protection. An another example that hinders him from accepting his crime and serving time in jail. With charges pending as a child molester of a minor, he will automatically become a target and victim for the inmates to pick on him and even abuse him while he is incarcerated. Evaluation Dr. Perry “six core strengths for children: • “Attachment: Being able to form and maintain healthy emotional bonds and relationships. • Self-Regulation: Containing impulses, the ability to notice and control primary urges will come as feelings such as frustration. • Affiliation: Being able to join and contribute to a group • Attunement: Being aware of others, recognizing the needs interests, strengths, and values of others. • Tolerance: Understanding and accepting differences in others • Respect: Finding value, in contrast, appreciating worth in yourself and others By locating devices is the key to designing effective prevention and intervention strategies” (B. Perry, 2002). Comparing Stevie’s emotional ability to the six core strengths he does not have the ability or understanding of these behaviors. Stevie’s, cognitive ability low for his age. He suffers from anger management issues and exhibits aggressive behavior towards his family members. He also gets into public fights and disorderly conduct when drinking alcohol. (S. James, 2002).
Jasmine Beckford’s case is the oldest out of the three; in 1984 Jasmine died as a result of long-term abuse aged 4. In 1981 her and her younger sister suffered serious injuries and were paced with foster carers for six months. After this they were allowed back home with their mother on a trial basis as social services were meant to support them. During the last ten months of Jasmine’s life she was only seen once by social workers (Corby, 2006).
The Bragg family grew up with virtually nothing. The father left the family a number of times, offering no financial assistance and stealing whatever he could before he left. When he was there, he was usually drunk and physically abusive to the mother. He rarely went after the children, but when he did the mother was always there to offer protection. Mr. Bragg's mother's life consisted of working herself to exhaustion and using whatever money she had on the children.
... was a success, earning over twenty thousand dollars. Steven is at 8th grade graduation, a beautiful girl to his left, and another to his right. Jeffrey’s leukemia is improving, proving that the Alpers’ sacrifices were all worth it. During the conclusion of the story, Steven’s development as a person is apparent. He goes from being “pretty sure about life” (pg. 1) to “I guess maybe my biggest achievement was learning that there’s more to life than taking the big drum solo,” (pg. 270). At the beginning of the year, Jeffrey was under Steven’s list of “Truly Annoying Things.” By 8th grade graduation, Steven has learned to greatly appreciate his brother, even to say “Jeffrey, I love you.” Over the course of the entire year, the Alpers exemplified how sacrificing important aspects of their life can help in overcoming hardships.
In the young life of Essie Mae, she had a rough childhood. She went through beatings from her cousin, George Lee, and was blamed for burning down her house. Finally Essie Mae got the nerve to stand up for herself and her baby sister, Adline as her parents were coming in from their work. Her dad put a stop to the mistreatment by having her and her sister watched by their Uncle Ed. One day while Essie Mae's parents were having an argument, she noticed that her mothers belly was getting bigger and bigger and her mom kept crying more and more. Then her mother had a baby, Junior, while the kids were out with their Uncle Ed. Her uncle took her to meet her other two uncles and she was stunned to learn that they were white. She was confused by this but when she asked her mom, Toosweet, about it her mom would not give her an answer one way or the other. Once her mom had the baby, her father started staying out late more often. Toosweet found out that her dad was seeing a woman named Florence. Not long after this, her mother was left to support her and her siblings when her father left. Her mother ended up having to move in with family until she could obtain a better paying job in the city. As her childhood went on she started school and was very good at her studies. When she was in the fourth grade, her mom started seeing a soldier named Raymond. Not too long after this, her mother got pregnant and had James. Her mother and Raymond had a rocky relationship. When James was born, Raymond's mother came and took the baby to raise because she said that raising four children was too much of a burden for a single parent to handle. Raymond went back to the service for a while but then when he came back he and Toosweet had another baby. Raymond's brothers helped him build a new house for them to live in and they brought James back to live with them. During this time Essie Mae was working for the Claiborne family and she was starting to see a different point of view on a lot of things in life. The Claiborne's treated her almost as an equal and encouraged her to better herself.
...e on her part. Throughout the story, the Mother is portrayed as the dominant figure, which resembled the amount of say that the father and children had on matters. Together, the Father, James, and David strived to maintain equality by helping with the chickens and taking care of Scott; however, despite the effort that they had put in, the Mother refused to be persuaded that Scott was of any value and therefore she felt that selling him would be most beneficial. The Mother’s persona is unsympathetic as she lacks respect and a heart towards her family members. Since the Mother never showed equality, her character had unraveled into the creation of a negative atmosphere in which her family is now cemented in. For the Father, David and James, it is only now the memories of Scott that will hold their bond together.
Ruth was being prevented from having a baby because of money problems, Walter was bringing him self down by trying to make the liquor store idea work. Once Mama decided to buy the house with the money she had received, Walter figured that he should further go on with the liquor store idea. Then, when Walter lost the money, he lost his dignity and tried to get some money from the “welcome party” of Cylborne Park. Mama forced him to realize how far he went by making him show himself to his son how low he would go. But he showed that he wasn’t susceptible to the ways the racism created.
The film that interested me for this assignment was “Boyz n the Hood”. The movie was about a Los Angeles neighborhood expanding of drug and gang culture, with increasingly tragic results. It was about how one teen had family support to guide him on the right path in life regarding the social problems around him. The other two teens in the film wasn’t as fortunate and fell into the social problems of drugs, violence, and gangs; where one ended up dead.
Susan Leigh Vaughan Smith was born September 26, 1971 in Union, South Carolina to Linda and Harry Vaughan. She was born the third child in the Vaughan family, with two older brothers. Linda Vaughan divorced Harry when Susan turned 7, and five weeks later Harry committed suicide at 37 (Montaldo). Within weeks of Linda and Harry’s divorce, Linda got remarried to Beverly (Bev) Russell, a local successful businessman. Linda and the children moved from their home into Bev’s, a larger house located in an exclusive subdivision in Union, South Carolina. Susan grew to be a well-liked teenager, and even became president of her Junior Civitan Club and Friendliest Female in her senior year (Montaldo). Everyone liked her, and she put on a great show at school. But after the last bell rang, she had to look forward to seeing Bev at home, something she feared above anything else. Bev had taken to molesting Susan when she turned sixteen, and it was not long afterward that she sought help with the local Department of Social Services (Wiki). The Department of Social services did little to help Susan, only making Bev attend a few counseling sessions (Wiki). When he returned home, he chastised Susan heavily for “airing their dirty laundry in public” and continued with the molestation (Montaldo). I believe thi...
Janie who continually finds her being defined by other people rather than by herself never feels loved, either by her parents or by anybody else. Her mother abandoned her shortly after giving birth to her. All she had was her grandmother, Nanny, who protected and looked after her when she was a child. But that was it. She was even unaware that she is black until, at age six, she saw a photograph of herself. Her Nanny who was enslaved most of her lifetime only told her that a woman can only be happy when she marries someone who can provide wealth, property, and security to his wife. Nanny knew nothing about love since she never experienced it. She regarded that matter as unnecessary for her as well as for Janie. And for that reason, when Janie was about to enter her womanhood in searching for that love, Nanny forced her to marry Mr. Logan Killicks, a much older man that can offer Janie the protection and security, plus a sixty-acre potato farm. Although Janie in her heart never approves what her Nanny forced her to do, she did it anyway. She convinced herself that by the time she became Mrs. Killick, she would get that love, which turned out to be wrong.
John Singleton’s view of social problems in South Central Los Angeles happens in a tale of three friends growing up together. Doughboy and Ricky Baker are half-brothers and have opposite personalities. Ricky is a football player who hopes to win a scholarship and spends most of his time playing football. On the other hand, Doughboy is a young man who looks upon his environment for guidance. He is involved in violence, abusing drugs, and participates in violence. In between is their friend Tre, who actually has a father to teach him what is right from wrong. Furious Styles, who is Tre’s father in the film does everything in his strength to keep his son from becoming another startling statistic. As you can see, it is always important for parents to be a part of their child’s life because it can make a big difference not only in their life but also their child’s future.
For the next few years, Ella struggles to raise her children in Memphis, Tennessee. Her long hours of work leave her little time to supervise Richard and his brother. Not surprisingly, Richard gets into all sorts of trouble, spying on people in outhouses and becoming a regular at the local saloonand an alcoholicby the age of six. Ella's worsening health prevents her from raising two children by herself and often leaves her unable to work. During these times, Richard does whatever odd jobs a child can do to bring in some money for the family. School is hardly an option for him. At one point, the family's troubles are so severe that Ella must place her children in an orphanage for a few weeks.
The childhood of Frances Piper consists of inadequate love, loss of innocence and lack of concern, ultimately leading to her disastrous life. As a six year old child, she encounters several traumatic events, explicitly the death of her loved ones and the loss of her innocence. Over the course of one week, there have been three deaths, two funerals and two burials in the Piper family. “Frances was crying so hard now that Mercedes got worried. ‘I want my Mumma to come ba-a-a-a-ack.’”( McDonald 174). As a young child, there is nothing more upsetting than losing a mother. A family is meant to comfort each other to fulfill the loss of a loved one; however, this is not the case in the Piper family. Mercedes, only a year older than Frances, tries to console her even though she herself is worried. The loss of motherly love and affection has a tremendous impact on her future since now her sole guardian, James, expresses no responsibility towards her. Instead, he molests Frances on the night of Kathleen’s funeral to lessen the grief of his lost daughter. As a result “These disturbing experiences plague Frances with overwhelming feelings of low self worth and guilt that haunt h...
Once a slave, Nanny tells of being raped by her master, an act from which Janie’s mother was brought into the world. With a
Like any child in the community, Jonas is uncomfortable with the attention he receives when he is singled out as the new Receiver, preferring to blend in with his friends. Once Jonas begins his training with the Giver, however, the tendencies he showed in his earlier life—his sensitivity, his heightened perceptual powers, his kindness to and interest in people, his curiosity about new experiences, his honesty, and his high intelligence—make him extremely absorbed in the memories the Giver has to transmit. In turn, the memories, with their rich sensory and emotional experiences, enhance all of Jonas’s unusual qualities. Within a year of training, he becomes extremely sensitive to beauty, pleasure, and suffering, deeply loving toward his family and the Giver, and fiercely passionate about his new beliefs and feelings. Things about the community that used to be mildly perplexing or troubling are now intensely frustrating or depressing, and Jonas’s inherent concern for others and desire for justice makes him yearn to make changes in the community, both to awaken other people to the richness of life and to stop the casual cruelty that is practiced in the community.
Marie, who is a product of an abusive family, is influenced by her past, as she perceives the relationship between Callie and her son, Bo. Saunders writes, describing Marie’s childhood experiences, “At least she’d [Marie] never locked on of them [her children] in a closet while entertaining a literal gravedigger in the parlor” (174). Marie’s mother did not embody the traditional traits of a maternal fig...