As a social worker, I have never analyzed or interrogated my approach, even though I have always criticized society and its institutions, as my perceptions and world conceptions emerge from a country historically marked by violence, particularly for a long war, commanded by an armed group. This communist group started its combat due to social inequalities and social structures, inspired by socialism. Since then, Colombia has experienced a prolonged conflict, and social workers have been dealing with the effects. Therefore, my experience has been surrounded by imbalance, oppression, and marginalization. In fact, I decided to be a social worker because of those disparities, and I have intended to contribute at different levels. These contributions
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These levels extend the scope of practice. "Micro and macro levels" actions reflect the final result of practice (Olivier, 2010). My experience has been across macro, mezzo, and micro levels, these possibilities have strengthened my knowledge and performance. At a macro level, my experience has been based on vulnerable communities, where poverty, unemployment, and violence abound. I worked for a government institution in charge of providing cultural facilities, recreational activities and park resources. These cultural and recreation programs were implemented as a mean of reducing vandalism, substance abuse, crime, gang involvement, unlawful activity and domestic violence. However, the cultural policy did not fit social reality, because policy makers did not know the context as they had never been there, as a result the policy was in a complete discordance with the particular context. The importance of “contextuality”, social work framework and practice is significant just if accorded with the context. (Gray & Fook, 2004) Understanding this social context, the community and their dynamics enable me to advocate for a social policy change. Consequently, I had to identify with the community those problems and the potential solutions, in order to adjust policy actions to the specific context. In addition, I have advocated for LGBT equal rights in …show more content…
According to Barry Cournoyer (2011), there are seven phases of practice: preparing, beginning, exploring, assessing, contracting, evaluating and ending, basic skills that enable professionals to work in different environments. By the same token Ebear, Csiernik, and Béchard (2013) state the generalist model of social work practice, which implies the seven steps needed. Regarding this seven-stage process, my practice has been elaborated with those steps. All my interventions have been guided by a first interaction, so the engagement stage that allowed me to create a rapport with the client. Followed by the assessment stage that helped me to clarify the information obtained with a subsequent plan. When I worked with families and children I had to establish strategies for intervention, thus the intervene stage, where I engaged actions with the individual, group o community and tried to accomplish plan´s goals. Implementation stage allowed me to carry out activities programmed, and the evaluation stage helped me to assess objectives and limitations within the
These levels extend the scope of practice. "Micro and macro levels" actions reflect the final result of practice (Olivier, 2010). My experience has been across macro, mezzo, and micro levels, these possibilities have strengthened my knowledge and performance. At a macro level, my experience has been based on vulnerable communities, where poverty, unemployment, and violence abound. I worked for a government institution in charge of providing cultural facilities, recreational activities and park resources. These cultural and recreation programs were implemented as a mean of reducing vandalism, substance abuse, crime, gang involvement, unlawful activity and domestic violence. However, the cultural policy did not fit social reality, because policy makers did not know the context as they had never been there, as a result the policy was in a complete discordance with the particular context. The importance of “contextuality”, social work framework and practice is significant just if accorded with the context. (Gray & Fook, 2004) Understanding this social context, the community and their dynamics enable me to advocate for a social policy change. Consequently, I had to identify with the community those problems and the potential solutions, in order to adjust policy actions to the specific context. In addition, I have advocated for LGBT equal rights in …show more content…
According to Barry Cournoyer (2011), there are seven phases of practice: preparing, beginning, exploring, assessing, contracting, evaluating and ending, basic skills that enable professionals to work in different environments. By the same token Ebear, Csiernik, and Béchard (2013) state the generalist model of social work practice, which implies the seven steps needed. Regarding this seven-stage process, my practice has been elaborated with those steps. All my interventions have been guided by a first interaction, so the engagement stage that allowed me to create a rapport with the client. Followed by the assessment stage that helped me to clarify the information obtained with a subsequent plan. When I worked with families and children I had to establish strategies for intervention, thus the intervene stage, where I engaged actions with the individual, group o community and tried to accomplish plan´s goals. Implementation stage allowed me to carry out activities programmed, and the evaluation stage helped me to assess objectives and limitations within the