The Importance Of Social Work

As someone involved in the field of Social Work, I am regularly challenged to assist individuals and families to cope through, work on. and deal with internal and external issues that can affect their ability to feel empowered. These factors can undermine their personal sense of well-being and their self-esteem. Therefore, it is important that I am aware of the available ways to effectively assist my client, while at the same time maintaining boundaries and professionalism.
In my dual current position as a Resource Specialist and Intake Coordinator, I work with formerly incarcerated individuals that regularly face all different types of oppression in their daily lives. When they are released from jail or prison, most feel basically powerless. Many come out and do not even have a home to go to.
On top of that, those in power (Parole/Probation Officers, landlords, employers, etc.) frequently seek to keep them from achieving their goals of obtaining suitable housing, employment, training and education, etc., whether directly or inadvertently. Therefore, they are often forced into positions that may hinder their growth and development, as well as put them into unsafe, unsavory, and unsanitary environments.
One particular client that comes to mind was told by his Parole Officer that he could not return to his own home to live with his wife and children after serving 3 years in prison for a non-violent crime. This was because his P.O. deemed the neighborhood that they lived in to be “unsafe” and “not conducive to his successful re-entry into the community.”
Consequently, his only available choices were to enter into the shelter system, or to be placed in a transitional housing facility with 39 other men. In either case, h...

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...r rental assistance checks have them paid through the month and they have not gotten into any altercations that would warrant a discharge and subsequent eviction. This is also a good thing for the shelter system because since many thousands of individuals rely on three-quarter housing to live, the shelter does not have to absorb these individuals into their already over-crowded facilities.
Furthermore, even though many times tenants are mandated to attend a substance abuse outpatient treatment program, this can actually work to their advantage because after a minimum of 90 days in this program, they can qualify to begin the process for a 2010e supportive housing application. They are applicable on the basis that they are technically still considered homeless and/or at risk of homelessness, and have successfully participated in and/or completed a treatment program