Reflection Of Social Work Direct Practice In My Community

Social work practice works with many people in different situations, needing concise help from professionals. This assistance includes a range of skills such as; identifying the problem or problems, apply and use evidence based practice and theories and critical reflection. All these skills are integral parts of best practice in social work, and are needed by all service users.

The class SW 6030 Human Development and the Social Environment has brought new insights and makes me see some topics in a different perspective. The critical reflection paper number one will integrate different concepts that I learned so far in this class.

State the significance to social work practice and social policy: Food insecurity and malnutrition is an endless pressing issue on the macro level of social work across the nation. This is a significance part of a social workers job is to address these issues on a larger scale. Social workers incorporate multisector strategies to address this issue through different agencies hoping to develop evaluations that would produce results of the need base for nutritional and food security programs, which leads to funding for these programs as well. The social polices of this includes providing food pantries, food banks, healthier options in school systems, and nutritional programs that helps reduce hunger and to address the poor heath concerns associated

This paper is a reflection from the first two chapters from the text, Direct Social Practice: Theory and Skills and it will answer the questions: how do social working professionals differ from other helping professionals? What is the focus and scope of a social working profession? What are the strength and challenges of the social worker professions focus?

My time in my internship has exposed me too many direct social work practice procedures and techniques. I have gotten opportunities to write grants, practice ethically/professionally, and learn how to use community resources. During my time at the BSW program, I have learned the process of assessment and how it is important in identifying the challenges that exist in the clients’ environment and how to alleviate these challenges. My past employment has helped me understand the qualities of leadership and professionalism.

Although I was exposed to many procedures and techniques of direct social work practice, there is always room for improvement. During my time at SOAR Fox Cities, I worked with in a macro level of social work practice. This organization may not work with their participants’ on a micro level because they focus more on this target population as a whole group. A professional challenge I encountered while at my internship, was being exposed to social work at the micro and mezzo level of practice. During the assessment process, I learned that challenges in a client’s environment must be identified in order for the social worker to have a successful working relationship with them. While at SOAR Fox Cities, I did not have an opportunity to do case

This class/semester is halfway through, and I started to make plans to continue my education at Aurora University. I applied for the Advanced Master program of Social Work at Aurora University; I was accepted first by a notification of an email from the school. Then I attended the Master Program for Social Work orientation. I registered as a new student and received my paperwork making myself eligible to register for my classes that will be starting in January 2018. I can’t express the feeling of accomplishment and joy I felt after completing the next step in my journey.

I was faced with a similar question in a previous class, and it was really hard to come up with an answer. Based on personal experiences traveling around the world and learning, and experiencing multiple cultures, it has given me a different outlook on American. These experiences have taught me put myself in another’s shoes, and try to see life through their lens. One’s personal beliefs, values, and actions aren’t a barrier to my ability to perform tasks, or services. I believe that humans are what they are, and that everyone is unique in the way that they think, feel, and want to live their lives. When asking myself, “What bothered me the most about the book?” it allowed me to realize a personal bias that I have. I believe that the worst thing that a human can do is to harm a child. Throughout the book you hear stories of neglect, suffering and trauma. These children are living in unimaginable environments that most people can’t even fathom. Drugs, murder, hunger, and poverty all have very negative effects on development.

Throughout the semester, we learned about the different aspects one goes through while studying social work; family, poverty, mental health, drugs, education, and the list goes on. I was able to connect well with the different content we were learning because of what I had experience during the service learning I had chosen. My service learning allowed me not only more of an understanding, but personal growth and a bigger connection to this social work course.

During my junior year of college, I secured an internship at a juvenile re-entry organization, A Better Way, Inc., located in Trenton, New Jersey, the town where I was born and raised. A Better Way, Inc. provides a range of resources to the surrounding community, such as support groups, community service opportunities, specialized job training, and referrals to other programs and resources. Clients varied in age and gender, but the majority were people of color. As an intern, I was supervised by a Licensed Social Worker and specialized in counseling and outreach. My position entailed assisting the organization with intake interviews and also co-facilitating several of their men’s discussion groups. While reflecting on this experience, I realized how much I valued the work I was doing because it positively impacted my community. These feelings confirmed that social work would be a fulfilling career path for me.

This assignment afforded me an opportunity to view myself in action in a social worker position. It clearly revealed where I correctly inserted and omitted implementing many of the skills that were introduced and reiterated during this course. As a result, I was able to identify some of my current strengths and weaknesses in the context of a helping relationship. Because I am critical of myself, I easily discovered my mistakes before realizing my competencies. Overall, I was pleased to see myself applying some the skills that professional social workers currently use, and I believe with more practice, I will develop into a proficient social worker.

Throughout our lives we experience many events that help to shape our development. Frequently, we are unaware of the developments taking place until we take time to reflect back on these events. Historically, many theorists have proposed various concepts that they feel best demonstrate the developments that people experience throughout their lifetime. Upon reflection of my personal life, I am able to connect some of the theories found in social work today with events that have happened in my life, particularly throughout my adolescence.

Social class placement has intrigued me for roughly a decade. My intrest in how social class is established began when my middle class family lost our only source of income, and dropped to identify as struggling in the lower class. Class placement can be tough for a social worker to deal with, especially when the client aspires to achieve a higher class, say middle class, but does not have the means to do so. As a social worker, the job would have to be finding a way to achieve that goal, or helping the individual or family to establish new goals without emotional degredation from letting go of achieving a different class. This social construction not only affects how people view each other, but also how they view themselves, which means it can be an issue on several fronts, mainly social and psychological. Since multiple ways of viewing, and ultimately fixing, the problem of social class placement can be used, I decided to focus on the theory of structural functionalism for this assignment.

When speaking with Cindy, the first thing I wanted to know was what she had originally wanted to do as a career and what training she had received. As I am aspiring to work within the counseling field, I always find it interesting to learn about the different ways to achieve this. Cindy expressed to me she had always known she wanted to do something within the helping profession. When she found out blood was not for her, she discovered social work. During her undergraduate training, Cindy majored in psychology and human services. After she completed this, she continued for her master’s degree in social work. After Cindy acquired all her necessary training, she began her many different career aspirations.

Before beginning the Master of Social Work program at Laurier I figured I had a strong understanding of what social work was. However, I quickly learned that I had only scratched the surface. I knew oppression existed, but I never understood the depth of it. I now know that I was afraid of it. It was easy for me to stay silent, because it was such a comfortable position to be in. Doing nothing meant I had nothing to lose and everything to gain. This was influenced by the privilege I had.