“The profession of social work originated as the advocating voice for the vulnerable and oppressed in society, and its purpose is to improve social conditions for those persons (National Association of Social Workers [NASW], 2003;Basically stating that our mission was founded on social change and social justice. Whether our career paths leads us towards practicing in the micro, mezzo, or macro level, social justice and social change will always be at the fore front. When one decides to become a social worker it is because you want to be that voice for a person or group that is in need of some type of help. Our role as a social worker is to be about creating a social change and social in oppressed cultures or lobbying for their rights as …show more content…
According to Garthwait (2014), it is achieving of social justice is a vision based on values, possibilities, purpose, forward thinking and commitment to change”. I believe that this is the path I am striving hard to become a social worker. Growing up in an improvised stricken environment, and watching my family struggle has made my desire to help people increase. My vision is one be able to one day open up a huge center that is a one stop resource facility. I often find in oppressed areas, it is hard for people to get all their needs met in one specific building. I hear plenty of times that families lack transportation, or they cannot really miss lots of work days to stand in long lines. There are families that really need the help, willing to get the help but it is just minor barriers hinder their progress. My vision is to first work on the empowering and building these oppress families up, and continuing that growth for many generations. “When an individual feels empowered usually they no longer feel hopeless, no longer feel victimized, no longer perceive they are at the mercy of continued adversity, and instead strive toward perceived potential” ( Travis & Bowman, 2012, p.
Social workers have several responsibilities. They have to provide service, justice, and dignity to a client. They have to possess integrity, competence, and patience. Social workers need to possess knowledge of human rights, and how to perform scientific inquiry. Social workers occasionally have cases in which problems ensue and a solution is not found within a certain time frame.
Sakamoto and Pitner (2005) write that AOP works towards eliminating the oppressions that negatively affect people’s lives by challenging the structural forces currently in place, which give some people more power than others. They also comment that social workers are never neutral professionals, and that it is their duty to initiate and further social movements, while also helping individual clients. Taking an AOP approach to social work helps to ensure that practitioners are pursuing social justice in their practice, which is an important aspect of social work that can be neglected when focusing solely on individual clients and their personal
The whole system focus of social work is universal, but the priorities of social work practice will differ from one country to the next, and from time to time depending on historical, cultural, political and socio-economic conditions. It is the responsibility of social workers across the world to defend, enrich and realize the values and principles reflected in this definition. A social work definition can be meaningful when social workers committed to its values and vision. Thus social work is amazingly a meaningful career.
According to the National Alliance of Social Workers (NASW), social justice is one of the primary ethics which social workers must uphold. Empowerment is a social work theory rooted in social justice, with a main goal of reducing social inequalities through community building and redistribution of access to power. The basic premise of empowerment is "to change the environment, change yourself" (Van Wormer & Besthorn, pg. 212). However, in order to change one 's environment or self, there must be options available and opportunities for individuals to have control over their own decisions. Empowerment theory also aims to build community through citizen participation, collaboration and engagement among community members.
The Profession of Social Work as a Career Goal Graduating from high school, I have always had a passion working with kids. I never put into thought exactly what I wanted to do with kids, all I knew was that I wanted to work with kids. At first, my career choice was to become a midwife. There were several complications down the road, in which I could no longer pursue that career choice.
Social workers are there to help meet the basic needs of human, also with the need of helping encourage, mentoring, and empower human struggles in society and poverty. The code is designed for many reasons. It identifies core values in which a social worker mission is based, the code summarize broad ethnic principle such as; challenge injustices, respect the inherent dignity and worth of the person, behave in a trustworthy manner, and help people in need and to address social problems. The code is generally designed to help people with relevant needs to there every day life. These codes help apply better and relationship with the worker to client.
Anti-oppressive practice focuses on the structural inequalities and places the blame that service users internalize on the structures and systems themselves (Ajandi, 2018). Humanistic and social justice values and ideas shape anti-oppressive practice (Healy, 2015). They address inequalities that affect opportunities of service users, due to the interlocking of social relations and oppression (Burke & Harrison, 2002). AOP aims to identify oppressions and define ways in which social workers can attempt to become anti-oppressive, avoid discomfort, and end oppression to service users (Strega, 2007). It highlights mutual involvement between the social worker and the service user, challenging forms of oppression and inequalities (Burke & Harrison, 2002), and presents the idea that service users do not occupy a “single identity”, but instead have interlocking oppressions that work together to put clients at a social disadvantage (Strega, 2007).
K. (2011) human behavior, communities, organizations and groups in the macro social environment: An empowerment approach. The second theory covered social justice, and this theory decrided how the Cultual exchange worker been discriminated and has been paying very low income which subject them to live in poverty, according to Finn, J. L., & Jacobson, M. (2008). Just practice: A social justice approach to social work. Social Justice There are a lot of challenges in social work and social justice practice; regardless, of the years social workers have been practicing, there will always be new critical social work ideas, theories and practices, on ideals, values, challenges in society, political and organization environment.
As social work professionals, we have a commitment to advocate for our clients. Because of our advocacy commitment, we also should be committed to social justice. Change cannot happen overnight; however, it also cannot happen if people are not willing to speak up about the things they are passionate about. Additionally, social workers must ensure that they are empowering their clients. As social workers, we should be committed to using a person first approach.
Modern critical social work emerged in the late 1800’s and has continued to be shaped and altered until present day (Healy, 2014). Although each social work perspective contains differences, Healy (2014) has identified four common discourses that unite the modern critical social work perspectives. Firstly, she identifies the dedication of social work professionals to work collaboratively with populations who are oppressed (as cited in Leonard, 1994). Secondly, modern critical social work perspectives recognize power differentials that occur within all relationships, especially the relationship between social workers and service users. Thirdly, these perspectives acknowledge broader systems’ influence on both individuals and social workers (as
“Field education is a required content area in social work education, intended to foster the integration of empirical and practice based knowledge and promote the development of professional competence” (CSWE, 2008). For social work students, field education aids as the connection between academic study and the historical roots of social work as a profession involved in the struggle for social justice. As a future social worker, we take on many roles that involve helping bring about change to the oppressed communities. We not only want change, but we lobby against laws and policy that negatively impact these people livelihood. “In today’s world, social workers and their clients not only may come from different cultures but also may be
We must take more responsibility towards our environment and especially towards our fellow human beings and our society! In my opinion it is also one of the most important tasks of a social worker to face inequalities. Inequalities between men and women and also between rich and poor
Mental Health Career-Social Worker I am Brookelynn, I am a Social Worker. I am going to teach you how to be a Social Worker. A Social Worker is an amazing job and career. You start with a education to learn everything you need to know. To be a Social Worker a lot of skills are required.
Social Workers have one tough job, especially since not everyone can come up with an agreement. If I was a Social Worker, I’d work with the people in poverty and color, and the LGBTQIA community to fight for their rights, so they can feel welcomed and loved like the rest of
The social issue that concerns me the most is poverty and I am certain that social work is the perfect profession to fight and advocate on behalf of those who need the most. Experiencing the struggles of low-income communities and learning about aspects of poverty, I became to realize that poverty involves more than money. Therefore, in order to understand poverty, we must understand that there are many factors in relation or that cause poverty. I am convinced that the social work field will not only enrich my knowledge about poverty and its causes, but also it will teach different approaches to combat this social