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A Social Worker Has A Large And Diverse Population

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A school social worker has a large and diverse population that they work with. This can cause a variety of needs that a social worker has to try and meet. One population a school social worker may have to work with is immigrant children. Working with immigrant children can bring many challenges, including higher educational and social needs, due to not fully understanding the English language. Another challenge that may be present is working with a higher probability of these children living in poverty. One way a school social worker can help meet the needs of immigrant children is through after-school programs. Joy Pastan Greenberg (2014) shows this in the journal article Significance of After-School Programming for Immigrant Children …show more content…

After-school programs have proven to have positive effects on social and emotional development. The benefits are protection and opportunities for enrichment, socialization, and acculturation. Also, after-school programs help to increase educational attainment. This is important when only about 20% of learning happens in the classroom. After-school programs provide activities such as art, sports, recreation and educational enrichment. It also allows children to form relationships with peers and adults. Another benefit of after-school programs that it encourages the development of identity and personal exploration (Greenberg, 2014, pp 243-251).
A school social worker has many different roles when working with immigrant children. One role that a social worker has is being an advocate for the need of after-school programs. School social workers also advocate for funding at a local, state, and federal levels. Another role is being an educator. School social workers can educate families of the benefits that after-school programs have. They can also educate the community members about specific immigrant populations. This way the community members can better understand more about the culture of the immigrant population in their community and became more culturally sensitive. School social workers can also educate policy makers on the importance of after-school programs. An additional role a social worker has in this setting is a broker, connecting

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