My understanding of the social work profession is to help communities, youth, families, groups and individuals who face inequality and hardships so that they can see the positive possibilities life has to offer. I faced similar hardships growing up therefore, I strive to empower people who need to have their voice heard and bring social justice to America. My dream is to make a difference by helping create a society that provides robust opportunities to anyone that may be disadvantaged. I would like to obtain my Masters of Social Work by influencing others and helping them to succeed in life.
My past human service experience are relevant because during my time at Michigan State University, as an undergraduate student, I was able to take
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One of the most difficult situations I have faced is my mother passing away when I was only twelve years old. Shortly after, my father along with three of my siblings were deported back to Mexico. I faced many hardships soon after including, watching one of my sisters hit a downward spiral, living alone on the streets, watching friends in the same predicament struggle to survive. My personal background has helped motivate me by showing my own ability to be resilient and grow from change. Therefore, I hope to have others avoid the circumstances I endured.
While homeless, I had a friend that made a positive impact in my life. He was the oldest sibling of three and relied on an unstable parent with drug addiction issues. My friend was unable to attend school because his siblings were not old enough to take care of themselves. His only foreseeable option was to earn money illegally. This lifestyle caused him to be a repeat offender the juvenile system. Ultimately, his mother passed from an overdose and his siblings were sent to foster care. Unfortunately, he was killed at the early age of sixteen, not even being able to experience a full life. I am confident that if he knew there were resources available, in order to help himself and his family, he would have made the changes that would have saved his life. The events of my friend’s life and the sad outcome
Completing my master’s degree in social work creates a better opportunity and a brighter career path. I am extremely excited about working in this field. The thought of helping
I want to be a social worker and a master’s degree is necessary for my desired profession as a social worker. I am driven to attend graduate school at this time in my life because I am also seeking that sense of fulfillment. My plans immediately following graduation is to pursue a job as a licensed child/family social worker or a clinical social worker. Five to seven years following graduation, I plan to become a supervisor or greater in the field of social
There are several goals that I hope to achieve by pursuing a graduate degree in Social Work. Pursuing a MSW will provide me with the knowledge, tools, and skills-set that will be fundamental to the achievement my career goals outlined below.
The Homeless are a vulnerable population. Homelessness is a social issue that anyone can almost be subjected to despite his or her age, race, ethnicity or geographical background. Kornblum (2012) defined homelessness as… “as a social condition in which people do not have regular housing and are forced to sleep in public places, public shelters, or facilities designed for homeless individuals and families” (p.280). The homeless population faces several adversaries in their lifetime of being homeless. Their adversaries are a lack physical and emotional disabilities, and possibly drug abuse. Grant some are homeless by choice, whereas most are homeless by mishaps, but nevertheless, they are humans deserving to be treated with fairness, dignity,
Working toward social justice for others has already begun for me. I know that being a graduate student with help hone and refine my skills as a clinical social worker. After I graduate, I have a long-term goal of working in community and hospital settings. I am especially interested in issues that relate to families.
Please describe any socio-economic, educational, familial, cultural, or physical hardships or challenges you have overcome. You may attach a separate sheet if you need additional space.
Prior to being in graduate school I was not fully aware of all the opportunities and experiences in social work. I have since gained more knowledge of macro level opportunities in the field of social work, such as advocating for human rights, and social justice. I have also been presented with the chance to tackle tough policies that directly impacts clients that I have interacted with through my experience in social work. I plan to continue to identify weakness in various systems to promote social justice, and learn more ways to change social institutions to be more humane and
The issue of homelessness is one that I can relate to all too well. About twenty five years ago I found myself among the homeless. My story is simple, I had no formal education and was working a job making minimum wage. I couldn’t keep up with my rent and other living expenses and was finally evicted from my overpriced apartment. At the time I was on a waiting list for public housing for which there was at least a two year waiting period. The fact that I was single, with no children did not help me either. For a while I lived on the streets and in shelters, too ashamed to approach what family members I had with my problems knowing that they were
At some point in one’s life, a person has seen or heard of an individual who lives on the streets. An individual who lives on the streets and holds a sign that says they need money for food is considered homeless. Sadly, these individuals are everywhere and the amount of people currently homeless in the United States is 564,708 according to the National Alliance to End Homelessness. However, in this nation, everyone has the ability to decrease this massive number. Necessary assistance from agencies, local funding, churches, and volunteers will place these homeless individuals in permanent housing. With this assistance, the number of homeless individuals will begin to decrease.
For many of us, shelter and food are things that may come easy. However, the same cannot be said for many people in the world today. While we complain about the weather or the food not tasting the way it should, someone out there today may not even have a place to stay or food to eat. Homelessness is an issue that we’ve all heard of and probably witnessed as well. Most people will point fingers and say that it’s the individual’s fault for always doing drugs and not having a job. However, that isn’t true for most cases. A lot of people are not aware of the correlations and causations, magnitude, and demographics of homelessness. Often times, we are more focused on whose fault it is rather than what actually caused the problem and who is being
My understanding of the social work profession is that it is a helping profession. To me social workers help others in a variety of situations. Social workers help find and connect people with resources for food, rent, insurance, medical care. Social workers also do work fighting for social justice on the Micro, Mezzo and Macro aspect, working for individuals and family to making laws to help underserved populations. Social workers also provide education to clients for lots of reasons. Some social workers became licensed and help people with counseling that may be needed for things such as PTSD or anxiety.
Social work is a career that finds and chooses you, rather than you selecting it. Social work has always been an immense portion of my life even when I had no recollection of what social work entailed. My life revolved around so many situations that had a social worker stepped in, my life would be totally different than it is today. Many individuals and agencies lack the compassion and empathy for oppressed people. Having been in many circumstances, has given me the experience and background that influenced me to go into social work, as well as the understanding of my role and responsibilities that I will assume as a professional social worker, and my reasons for selecting the program at ASU School of Social Work and thoughts on how the Mission Statement addresses my career goals.
My vision of the social work field is being able to help people in need and being the person that people can look back on and remember as a huge help in time of need. I think my core values and beliefs will help me be an effective social worker and help me succeed in this field. It is in my belief that a person should never be knocked down when they are going through hardships, and rather empowering them. I also believe that not everyone could be a social worker because it takes a certain kind of empathetic and self-aware person. I truly believe that my upbringing has humbled me to understand and not be judgmental of people’s issues since I’ve seen a lot in my short twenty-one years.
My understanding of the profession of social work is to enhance human well-being and to help meet the basic needs of all society, especially the needs of the most vulnerable, oppressed, and the needs of the people living in poverty. Social work leading duties are to promote social justice and social change on behalf of clients.
Law has come to play a very important part in social work practice. It can be said that the understanding of law underpins and provides duties and power, whilst understanding the statutory legal requirements is essential for effective, fair, anti-discriminatory practice (Brammer 2007). Due to the shear amount of laws and legislation that have been passed or updated over the last decade, the role of the social worker, metaphorically speaking could be said to have become somewhat of a chameleon, forever adapting to their legal environment, whilst trying hard to remain true to the traditional values of the role of a social worker. It is this conflict between law and social work values that will be analyzed in this paper. From looking at the values that underpin the modern day social worker and then looking at some of the main legislation relating to adult services such as the Mental Health Act 2007, the Community Care Act 1996, Mental Capacity Act 2005 the relationship between these Acts’ and how they sit with social work values will then be discussed.