Social Work Community Analysis

The practice of social work has evolved from three major movements, The Charity Organizations, Settlement Houses, and Child Saving Movements. “Charity organization societies were developed by philanthropists to regulate the use of charitable agencies by the poor” (pg. 52). This society was organized to assist the needy, but also to ensure that they only received help from one charity. There is a stigma that people should not be helped too much or they will become reliant on the assistance of the government. Our role as a social worker is to make sure that people are getting as much assistance as they need. Some people have no choice and do have to rely on

I began my social work studies over twenty-five years ago at Utah State University in Logan, Utah. I never questioned my decision to pursue a career in social work; I loved my classes and worked hard to learn as much as possible. But the information I gained in undergraduate school simply opened the doors of my education. Most of my learning has come through constant questioning, personal research, and especially through work and life experience. Through these experiences I have encountered the challenges faced by individuals, families, and society and have been able to further access and develop the innate personality traits and abilities that originally led me to study social work as well as learn and practice the many skills necessary to be a successful mental health counselor.

I can say that being a social worker was never in my plans. I started from Liberal Arts, because I wasn’t decided on my career choice. I took almost all courses, when I got an advice from one of my friends to try Health Information Technology. I gave it a chance and I didn’t realize how time flied by and I graduated. My dream always was to work with children. When I graduated and took my internship, that was the time, when I understood that I made the wrong choice. I needed to search for another career, because I understood, that it would not be what I meant. My father is physical therapist and he gave me and advice to think and to do some research about Social Worker. This time, I did the most research that I could, in order to not repeat my mistake again. I instantly knew, that this what I needed. All over the world, there is and will always be abuse. That’s the reality of it, but now I’m studying for Social Worker here at Lehman College, because I would like to be working toward changing a child’s reality one day, I am changing my knowledge every time I come to class, and changing my life one step at a time. I believe that it all starts with me, and while I may not be able to save the whole world, I will be able to save and help at least small part of it. I currently work in the family practice as a receptionist. My best days are those when I able to help people and provide them with all the information needed. Every day is different.

Experiencing hardships and my resilience to overcome them is the main reason I chose to pursue a Master’s of Social Work (MSW) degree. My familiarity with asking for resources, as a former foster youth, a number of my interactions involved social workers. I utilized resources as a transition aged youth; and I believe it was those same resources that kept me focused on my future and school. I became homeless at eighteen years of age and it was transitional housing, through The Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) that gave me hope and direction.

Indian nationalist leader Mahatma Gandhi once stated, “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others”. This simple yet powerful quote motivates me to remain steadfast in the mission of aiding others. I’m pursing a Masters in social work because by working in this field, I can educate, advocate, motivate, understand, and encourage resilience to clients from every walk of life. It is a profession that will allow me to practice both on a micro and macro level simultaneously. Lastly, working in social work gives me the capacity to challenge policies affecting disadvantaged communities.

For as long as I can remember I have always wanted to pursue a career in social work. Helping others is something I have always been passionate about and I hope to be able to make a difference in the lives of those around me. Throughout my life, I have always been the person my friends would go to when something was wrong and they needed to talk. Growing up, I also experienced close family members struggle with addiction and mental health problems. I have seen how damaging these experiences can be on an individual. I have also witnessed the effects these experiences can have on family relationships. My personal occurrences have instilled in me a further desire to become a social worker.

Modern social workers participate actively in helping people to obtain rights, services, benefits and opportunities that they might not otherwise obtain through micro policy advocacy, ?often prioritize the needs of vulnerable populations when they engage in advocacy? (Jansson, 2016, p. 21). Through community immersion, the social worker gains an understanding of the community attributes and desiderata, requiring them to utilize their experience and expertise to advocate policies that will satisfy the client?s needs (NASW, n.d.). Furthermore, when social workers immerse themselves in the community, it becomes an act of care and concern to serve the community. Compelling them to implement new changes, depict workable intervention schemes, and generate attainable treatment plans to satisfy the needs of the individuals, families and community.

I aspire to become a licensed clinical social worker so that I can have an in-depth method for assisting clients. I believe that social workers are afforded an awesome yet overwhelming task of helping individuals through the course of their lives. I hope to inspire my clients in knowing that challenges are the stepping stones to becoming resilient and that challenges are not meant to break a person. All in all, it is important for social workers to constantly reaffirm their dedication to helping their clients by taking time to care for themselves, seeking continuing education so they are kept abreast of current information, realizing that the steps to change and change itself is often uneasy, messy, difficult but necessary for the advancement of all

The interview session I had with Kayla Huddleston was necessary in understanding different dynamics of the Social Work profession. Ms. Huddleston is an experienced professional who works in the social work program at Seattle University. She performs diverse roles in the social work program at the university. She is a program coordinator for a social work program and responsible for recruitment and admission program in the university. She also organizes and ensures different social programs including graduation within the university. Her program coordination role requires diverse skills and competencies and at least a Master’s degree in social work from a recognized university. Kayla Huddleston holds a Master’s degree in social work from the University of Washington specializing in policy and administration. Her micro-level policy and system duties enable her to develop strategies and administrative policies that directly influence the lives of different people in the society.

When I am an advanced level practice social worker, my goal is to be committed to social justice and empower my clients. In order to achieve this goal, I have decided to pursue my masters degree at the Walden University School of Social Work. This graduate program will prepare be to be an even more competent and effective change agent in the advanced level of practice. When working with veterans and/or members in the military, it is important to embrace a strengths perspective in practice. This graduate program will teach me how to contribute to the empowerment of veterans and/or military members while embracing a strengths perspective in a clinical practice setting. This program will increase my cultural competence as a clinical social worker. Which will in turn, help me understand and respect the cultural diversity of veterans and/or members of the military at all levels of government.

I realized that a career in social services was the best fit for me when I witnessed the quantifiable benefits of my therapeutic interventions at the micro level. By helping to improve the functionality and well-being of individuals at a social disadvantage, I experienced a unique feeling of satisfaction and gratitude that signaled a deep sense of purpose. I have resolved to pursue a Master of Social Work degree

My conceptualization of community has been evolving and changing as I become more knowledgeable about the world in a global sense. This learning has made me aware of how the family we are born into, the towns we are raised and live, the hobbies we have, our spiritual beliefs and practices, along with the education and political systems we are immersed impact the way we construct our community. Even though my actions may be small with respect to the global community I am of the belief that my actions ultimately impact everyone both inside and outside of the community I live. I have heard people speak of this in relation to the nuclear spill in Japan. How does that event which happened across vast body of water impact us living on the Skeena River? How does it not? It is connected to the fish we eat, the rain that falls onto our heads, the land and water which

Every worthwhile journey begins with one step. My social work journey began when I received my undergraduate degree from the University of Utah in 2003. I thought my next step would be to immediately pursue a graduate degree. In my undergraduate career I had taken numerous classes from the College of Social and Behavioral Science and had done well in those classes. In my Social Work as a Profession course I had an assignment to shadow a social worker and write a paper about my experience. I chose to shadow my father-in-law, a social worker with over 30 years of experience, and in my paper I expressed my desire to go into the social work field. I knew I liked helping people. I knew I liked problem solving and critical thinking. I thought my 22 year-old self was ready to embark on that journey, but I wasn’t. I realize now that what I lacked at graduation was one crucial step… perspective. Over the past twelve years I have gained that much needed perspective and have taken many steps forward in my journey, and with those steps and that increased perspective, I now feel more fully prepared to begin my social work career.

For this reflective journal, I have decided to draw parallels between approaches to social work that I have learned in my placement, and what I have learned during my academic career at Carleton University. Placement thus far, has been an eye-opening and rich experience, which has taught me about the profession that I aspire to be a part of. I am a third year student, and much of my time spent at Carleton, has been studying theories, and becoming exposed to different schools of thought. Theories are incredibly beneficial, to teach and inform the practice of the next generation of social workers. However, placement has provided me with the opportunity to apply theoretical ideals, to real life social work practice.

Community development (CD) has been playing an important role within the society as it is a critical practice that identifies and attempts to address unequal relations of power (Forde & Lynch, 2015). In CD, social capital is an important term as it refers to the networks and norms that enable collective action. In general, social capital is the level of trust between members within the community. Social workers need to understand and empower the social capital to strengthen the community through collective action based on the existing resources.