Social Service Reflection

In this essay I will discuss what learning from K216 materials has been useful to me whilst working with vulnerable and/or disadvantaged service users in my student placement, and what learning I have applied to my practice. Throughout I will look at how my learning informed what I decided to do, how I went about doing this and my understanding of the practice. I will discuss learning in respect of two areas of social work, which are ‘Communication’ and ‘Working collaboratively’. For ‘Communication’ I will focus on communication with service users with disabilities and/ or additional needs and I will explore a case of a mother who I had a telephone call with who was in crisis and in a highly emotional state. With ‘Working collaboratively’,

This capstone course assisted in connecting all the material I have learned thus far in the program as well as helped me to identify what skills and knowledge I need to continue working on. The capstone presentation, as well as class, helped me to practice strength-based language and be conscious of how I describe my clients when presenting them to others. It can be a habit to use negative language to describe a problem-saturated story and unintentionally describe a patient’s story in a way that comes off as stigmatizing. This class helped me become conscious and tactful about how I word sensitive circumstances. It was a great experience to present my patient’s case to the class and practice being thoughtful of how I portrayed my patient’s presenting problem to the group.

The project meet a recognized need in the community is I play with little kids, watch their safety, also assisting teacher. The project links to what I've studied in school was way back when I was in fifth grade. My teacher assigns me a kindergarten buddy, I teach him sight words and helping him writing sentences. I reflect throughout the service-learning experience is I have a happy time to play with little kids. I did not take leadership or ownership of the project. I prepared for this project talking to First Steps Director of the church. The strengths are teacher thinks I'm helpful and little kids like to play with me. I don't need any modification if I were doing this again, because my teacher is satisfied what I did.

This weeks structured journal also felt like reflective one because I feel like I had to take a step back and really analyze my session with my clients to explore if I have carried out any of the social work pitfalls that were mentioned in the work sheet. One of the pitfalls that I have learned in my undergrad to drawback from and also realize when I’m performing it is the advice-giving vs the information giving. Being a social work it comes easy to tell a client what to do based on our own perception. But when a client is seeking advice I have discovered that it is better to explore with the client solutions and possible outcomes that they come up with on their own through the help of a social worker. There was a moment when one of my

The journey towards the attainment of the Bachelor of the social work degree has been an enlightening and educational experience, as the individual is exposed to the realities of many social and political issues in the society. As a student, I ventured into the degree, with minimal insight as to how the degree can influence and shape the way I perceive the social world, and the way I relate these matters to myself. However, throughout my endeavour, which encompasses years of theoretical studies, and two intensive placements at two drastically different organisations, I believe I have accumulated the bare minimal knowledge to possess a solid foundation about the unfairness and inequality that people in disadvantaged conditions face. Social workers are predominantly found in welfare organisations which Howe (as cited in Limber, 2015) suggested largely influences the practice, direction and values of the social worker, and impacts on their ability to act autonomously (Lymbery, 2015). During my placements, there was a dominant theme that frequently stood out and enticed my attention. This was the accepted practice of focusing on the individual’s problem, as opposed to the social problems that existed and the lack of acknowledgement about the social restrictions of the human agency that limited self-determination. The realization that organisations were managed this way was important in ensuring that I made a proactive effort to understand and untangle the reasons behind such

This past semester, I have had many opportunities to do service in my community and help others. Although there were some obstacles, I can say that doing this service has positively impacted me and made me a better Catholic. Through these many hours, I learned a lot about myself, the people around me, and what it is to serve God.

Social work as a whole incorporates several theories and practices that deal with empowering and liberating individuals to improve well-being. Using these theoretical approaches has been helpful in addressing the social systems and providing interventions that allow individuals to interact with their environment. It has been a year and a half since I have been engaged in the process of growth and change. This semester has been a great learning experience, but in every semester, I learned new ways of working with clients, how to navigate the social systems, and the impact of power structure on individuals, groups, and society. When I started the MSW program, I had a vague understanding of what social work is. Through the coursework and

At Santa Maria College, we are have to treat others with respect and to always help out and lend a helping hand to those who are in need. To show this in the community, Santa Maria Students actively provided volunteer work to organisations, in hope to build confidence, character and respect for others. This year I volunteered at Scotch College, and helped out a Grade 2 teacher with many different tasks, that would have been a struggle and challenge to achieve alone. Having my service here was a great eye opener to the how much passion and effort employees put into their jobs, to ensure the greatest possible experience for those who they help. So by learning this early I aimed to do the same for Mrs Fowles when I volunteered fro he during the holidays. At my visits to the school I was assigned many tasks, mostly helping organisation of her classroom for the new school year. Throughout the days at my service activity, I completed filing work, marking, cleaning and helped carry heavy loads of books, stationary, are classroom furniture. This organisation has been able to provide an intellectual and personal challenge programme in keeping with the best traditions of liberal education. Scotch promotes individuality, opportunity, equity and excellence. Their mission is to develop young men with strength of character, self-understanding, a passion for sustained learning and spiritual inquiry who will become active members of the global community. One of the principals of social

Community service is a very special and important activity when it comes to wanting to not only better your community but also connect with the community in a way that is not possible in your everyday life. For this semester I experimented with a different types of community service, it ranges all the way from giving blood to helping out my local no kill animal shelter. Doing all of these things really opened up my eyes, it made me realize how much our community needs our help, and if we do not put forth the effort nothing is going to change or get better. I am not saying what I did over this semester changed anything, but I now know all the benefits of community service and hope that one day in the near future I can contribute in a way that is beneficial to others of my community.

At Santa Maria College, we are educated to treat others with respect and to always help out and lend a helping hand to those who are in need. To show this in the community, Santa Maria Students actively provided volunteer work to organisations, in hope to build confidence, character and respect for others. This year I volunteered at Scotch College, and helped out a Grade 2 teacher with many different tasks, that would have been a struggle and challenge to achieve alone. Having my service here was a great eye opener to the how much passion and effort employees put into their jobs, to ensure the greatest possible experience for those who they help. So by learning this early I aimed to do the same for Mrs Fowles when I volunteered fro he during the holidays. At my visits to the school I was assigned many tasks, mostly helping organisation of her classroom for the new school year. Throughout the days at my service activity, I completed filing work, marking, cleaning and helped carry heavy loads of books, stationary, are classroom furniture. This organisation has been able to provide an intellectual and personal challenge programme in keeping with the best traditions of liberal education. Scotch promotes individuality, opportunity, equity and excellence. Their mission is to develop young men with strength of character, self-understanding, a passion for sustained learning and spiritual inquiry who will become active members of the global community. One of the principals of social justice that I addressed was that children may receive a strong education and are taught strong morals and beliefs. By having my own experiences in receiving an education I have learnt that students are in desperate need for a good, organised learning area and a caring and loving learning environment. People can often label the need for a good and proper education as not a high priority, however is not the case. Through my service I aimed to provide lending hand and help to address and improve this issue in society by starting at the college. By the end, I was pleased with myself myself that I had been able to really make a differences to Mrs Fowles, and that I was able to unload a large stress off her back. As Nelson Mandela once said

The one thing that surprised me was how much I learn from people come to our class. I like when real people come to our class and talk about the experience they had in that field. Even if I was not interested in the field they worked at. They were sharing what I wanted to hear. And how most of them were not doing their jobs for the money but for love. What I’m doing is for love and not for money. Finding people like me around this area was kind of awesome to me. Before this class I would read about people doing their job for love but I didn’t believe them because people are different behind the camera.

In Chapter 1 of Social Welfare in Canadian Society there is a section focusing on social welfare programs and services. While reflecting on this section I examined the importance of the ideas discussed and how they will contribute to my future as a social worker. As a social worker, I will be exposed to the social welfare programs and services. Being familiar with the programs and services will be beneficial to myself as a future social worker. While being familiar with these programs and services will prepare me for future contact with them, it will also give myself an idea of what services and programs I believe work and which ones I recommend could use some improvements by looking at them critically. Being critical is important as a social worker due to critical thinking can lead to positive change.

As a chair member in the National Art Honors Society, I organized five community service events in my junior year. Each event worked with a new set of people -- classmates, community members, elderly-- throughout the West Chester area. Through these events I gained a sense of what community is all about; diversity, respect, and compassion are huge components of a healthy community. Oddly enough, I had never applied what I learned about a community to the place I spend most of my time: my high school. The election produced high tensions at Rustin as the media encouraged people to speak their opinions unapologetically. Students were becoming outspoken about abortions, immigration, and gay rights. Not all opinions were kind. This resulted in

I heard about SURJ for the first time when Mrs. Matera told my table about it. We were trying to find groups of people who were allies and she told us about SURJ. SURJ is a group of all white people trying to fight racial inequalities. My partner Maddy and I first went on their website and found some information on them and followed by going to their Facebook page. On their Facebook page we saw that they had a meeting very soon on the 5th of November. We decided to contact them through their email. After a few days and no response we decided to Facebook message them. I began to get anxious because we got no response and I didn’t know if it was appropriate to go and try to observe their meeting without previously being in contact. We had to observe the group at least three times. So we made the decision to go a little early to the meeting and ask one of the leaders if it was ok to observe.

Over the course of the semester, I had the opportunity to do Service Learning Hours for my class. I got my hours from two different ways. Being able to do the Service Learning Hours, made me feel great that I was able to give back to the community in some sort of way, even if it wasn’t a significant amount. Even though it may not be much, everyone was still very appreciative and glad that I was able to help.