Community Intervention Blog Post

So, I'm deciding to write my reflection as a letter to a friend of mine who is a survivor of domestic violence and sexual assault and was the driving force and inspiration for this week!

Dear Friend,

As you know the week of April 11th was Domestic Violence Awareness Week. We had to do a community intervention and participate in various events throughout the week. Although organization was tough through three different classes ... yes, all three classes organized this! We had to communicate via email and blackboard which became increasingly difficult because something always goes wrong with technology. Emails don't always work, people don't check them (I know you never do) and others don't have the time to respond. Verbal and face to face communication is the best way to do things. I know what you're thinking, didn't one person do all the work? In some cases yes, but we broke into teams split the duties and I think everyone kept their word. With a cause like this how could you not? Our class is suppose to evaluate this, and the way I think we should evaluate it? Not by who did what, or was every job done equally but how the survivors felt about this event and if we made an impact. Yes, for classroom sake we have to know all that who did what stuff. But when it comes down for it we were there as advocates and if the survivors felt support and we raised awareness and money that our evaluation was successful.

I know you're not a social work major, so it's kind of hard to understand what we all go through but let me tell you. This week has created a bond between us all that I'm glad I got to experience while here in college. Talking to classmates I think is the best way to be informed and to gain feedback. We were the ones to make all this happen! No one understand the stress and hard work as much as we do. And I think we all never felt prouder than when the survivors thanked the social work department for all their work, how amazing is that?

The future, what can we do there? If this wasn't a letter I'd ask you out loud, cause I think people and survivors like you will shape future community interventions like this. Weeks like this shouldn't stop. A survey given out at the end of the week would be the best way to better organize and fill in the holes for the future. Taking feedback from survivors and making a comprehensive evaluation to give to future social workers would work best. Do you think survivors would be willing to evaluate the programs? I feel they would if it would help the cause.

I learned a lot about myself through this experience, starting with how unaware I was of the oppression of this group and also how vague my understanding was about what survivors go through. And I'm sorry I never truly understood what you went through, but this week has shown me how hard it is and that support is the best medicine. A small community like that at BSU can reach out and touch so many people and I love feeling that I could be a part of that. I'd like to share a quote with you, from an article I read for class that I think pertains to what I learned during this week and maybe will inspire you too:


"It requires that we choose to belong to each other. It does not require us to like each other or agree with each other…it requires us to be committed to both caring for the container of commonality and the individual differences inside."

This quote pretty much sums up my learning about communities and community interventions. That we are all so different. During Take Back the Night I was standing with so many people so diverse and different than me, but we were all there for one commonality which is what made this week so special. You know me, I love being an advocate for anything possible, using my loud mouth to the advantage of other people is something I'm proud of. This is the thing that made me feel the most like a social advocate, I started in my community and bettered the people in it, rather than working from the outside. 


The future is unknown, but you know other social workers will be taking over this project in the future ... what can I tell them? 1. Start AS EARLY AS POSSIBLE 2. Assign jobs and stick to them 3. People don't respond, it happens 4. Work together, this is a community event 5. Be willing to let someone else lead, you could learn a lot 6. It's SURVIVOR not victim. 7. Strength in numbers 8. Meeting face to face means more and get's more done 9. Learn to tie knots or the clothesline project will be VERY difficult and 10. Accept criticism, everyone is entitled to their own opinion!

I hope reading this letter let you know a little bit about what I did that week. I know it was too hard for you to attend, but maybe when these kids in the future do it, you could do too.

Sincerely,
Lacey.

Post Blog!

I'm not too creative, I struggle to even be on camera so please excuse that.

Compare this to my original video too, see how things have changed :)

Aid/Community Based Approaches!

“When we launched Kony 2012, our intention was to share the story of Joseph Kony with new people around the world”

- CEO of Invisible Children Ben Keesey

In macro work there are two basic approaches that can be taken: aid based and community based approach. Let’s tackle the biggest one first and that would be aids based approach, which can be loosely defined as an outside source or organization attempting to solve a problem that does not directly affect them or their living area. This can be compared to the “Kony 2012” an organization called Invisible Children in 2003 started campaigning against the LRA and Joseph Kony and his part in the civil war in Africa. Kony is charged with being one of the worst war criminals in history and abducts children into his rebel army.
Invisible Children was started by three college students who went to Uganda and found children who were being abducted and forced to be child soldiers. Much of how most aid based approaches exist they are created in the Western world to solve a problem that they are little educated about. Which leads into the badvocacy role of aids based approaches. These organizations often give a western-civilization view to issues that shouldn’t have it and insist on involvement and that all Americans must jump to action immediately. Which is part of the main criticism for Kony 2012. Many people feel that Invisible Children is using money in the wrong ways and spreading a message about an issue that is mis informative and made to draw attention to the organization not the problem. It’s pretty hard to wrap your head around these issues, an organization tells you to do something important for people who are struggling and critics say don’t! But in my opinion, I think you should do what you feel is right after proper research. Aid based approaches always start with good intentions but don’t seem to end that way, they try to end world hunger by donating shoes and stop criminals with bracelets. If there is an aid based approach someone is passionate about and they want to make a difference they should research! Make calls, don’t be afraid to ask questions about where your money will go and what the plan of action is. Just because a famous actor tells you to donate, doesn’t mean you have to reach for your checkbook. But in macro social work there are always criticism and adversity that organizations and people have to overcome, regardless. And that’s part of working with such a large amount of people, you can’t please everyone!

These organizations such as Kony 2012 differ very much from community-based organizations such as Women, War and Peace. This is a community-based effort that is about stabilization of the community and not the quickest way to get help. It’s working within the communities to find the best approaches in helping them. In Women, War and Peace their organization is using a different approach. They are not trying to advocate for woman affected by war but empowering woman to end conflict that is an obtainable goal and something that will come over a length of time. This organization is working along side these women to help and advocate for them rather than in an office.

Pray the Devil Back to Hell is also a community-based organization that was formed by woman in Africa. These women saw a problem, the same of that with the LRA stealing children, and decided to take action anyway they could. These two organizations are fighting for justice for the same thing but using completely different approaches. In PDBH, it is women who are fighting for a cause, which is rare compared to Kony 2012 who was started by men. But perhaps the biggest difference is that Kony 2012 was started but three men who have visited Uganda, the area they think is being harmed. In PDBH, the woman live in Liberia where they know the conflict is happening. They are experiencing it first hand and trying to change it in their community for themselves. Kony 2012 is trying to simply bring attention to an issue, not resolve it. They wish to only get it recognized so it stays on the radar of the United States. The two are similar because they are fighting for the same cause, to save the abducted children of Africa and are both filmed in a documentary format. I think in the end their intentions are pure at heart in that they want to end something that is affecting a population so greatly, and cannot do it alone. It’s social workers like me, who want to work on the international level who have to help these organizations be capable to expand and reach a whole community of people.

The approaches of these organizations are so different and all come with criticism and conflict so the real question is:

What is the best approach to solving these macro issues across borders?

EDITORS NOTE: As I mentioned in previous blog posts, the Invisible Children organization has been something I have been involved with for 5 years. I have participated in many events, donated money, given presentations and have personal connections to the organization. I’ve even applied to an internship with Invisible Children for the summer 2012. I tried to stay professional and keep my opinions based on facts and readings and not on my personal opinion. If I seemed biased this reason is why. People should look to the overview of the organization; it’s about spreading the word to get people talking about issues!
This is me with a survivor of the LRA! These issues are real, go out and fight for them!

My Community Interventions!

This class has come such a long way and it's so exciting to see everything falling together. As much as I dislike giving myself praise or claiming I did a lot of tasks, I'll write up a few things that were "my job" for this community interventions class! I really do dislike giving myself credit for anything I've done because I believe this is truly a group effort and no one person's contribution is more important than other. It's the face that we all work together and try to make this event happen that's important!


I really have enjoyed being a part of the Leadership Team for our class. Not only do I get to help make these exciting decisions but I get to learn so much from my other classmates. The people on the leadership team are intelligent and teaching me so much about community interventions and social work itself.
Broken down I am on team Publicity! Which is exciting in it's own ways because we get to spread the word about!
One of my main jobs on publicity was Student Announcements. I had to research student announcements and figure out how we would get the word of our events out to the whole community. Once I had that issue solved, I put out a few reminder announcements for the fund raising class about their bake sale and save the date for the stop the violence events!
My next task I have been working on is researching signs for the clothesline project as well as the other events. The signs will stick in the ground around campus helping to say "clothesline project -->" etc. This task is still in the works because of it's communication with fund raising and our budget but we shall see!
Contributing time and ideas is one of the hardest tasks and I think that's the one everyone can say they've accomplished the most and will continue to accomplish until these successful events happen! Keep that in mind :)

Holding Ground and DSNI !

After reading about DSNI and spending time on their website in coordination with watching the Holding Ground video has given me a different look at macro practice. It shows a different perspective of making a difference in a community that seems more close to home and more reachable. It was nice to read and watch information about communities that seem like they could be in my home town or I can relate to. It makes learning about macro work that much more enjoyable.

The video Holding Ground video is a basic overview that's inspiring for the work with communities in need of assistance. The video focuses on a community that was slowly turning into a poor neighborhood. The quality of the community was declining, rather than inclining like most communities that change do. This movie really showed the struggles faced in trying to improve the situation of the community and really portrayed how easy it is with cooperative people to help. The citizens were willing to do anything to improve their living situations and better the sense of community they had. This community had become a dumping ground of trash and false hopes. It really showed how financial, mental and physical supports are needed in order to improve the situation of everyone involved. A large struggle was ensuring to keep the interests of the long term residents, as said in Fraser and Kicks article which surrounds the struggles of rebuilding the community it says, "Another more commonly recognized danger of community building is that it can lead to gentrification and displacement of long-time residents." Which is true and something that became new to me as a macro social worker because you have to make sure all key pieces of a community are in place before rebuilding.

The issue of diversity also comes into play in this video because of the population of Cape Verdean, Spanish and African American community members. They faced the struggle of discrimination and people not wanting to sell houses to them. It is important as macro social workers to embrace the diversity of others. In one article it discusses the boundaries of working with communities and the appropriate ways to deal with them, "on going community-based efforts to develop a coordinated community response system that is responsive to the cultural, linguistic, ethnic, and religious diversity of the community." This shows that the response to community interventions has to relate to the diversity of the community. This is a huge key in my understanding and learning.

When reading about DSNI it was inspiring to see a community project geared towards bettering youth. I love projects like this and being a part of them because it's continuously working towards a goal. The website was very well put together and what I loved most is that it was approachable. It made it seem that anybody could help the community or anybody that needed help could be helped. I feel being approachable is the biggest thing when working with communities. In the Netting chapter in the introduction it talks about communities and how we should talk to the communities and relate to them as social workers we cannot separate ourselves but becoming an equal within the community to help it best.



References

Netting, F. E., Kettner, P. M., McMurtry, S. L., & Thomas, M. L. (n.d.). Social Work Macro Practice (5th ed.).

Fraser, J., & Kick, E. (2005). Understanding Community Building in Urban America. Journal of Poverty, 9(1), 23-44.

Horton, M., & Freire, P. (2003). We Make the Road by Walking (pp. iii-256). Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.

Change Agents!

CHANGE AGENTS!

Rana Husseini is a female Jordanian journalist who first began advocating for her cause in 1994. As a journalist for a small Jordanian paper she first came across the story of a young girl who had become a victim of an ‘honor killing.’ After Rana read of her story she became an investigative journalist looking further into the unspoken world on honor killings. What she found was a story she wanted to dedicate the rest of her life advocating for. She began fighting to bring the persecutors of honor killings to justice and she did so by joining the Jordan National Committee to Eliminate So-Called ‘Crimes of Honor’ in 1998. She started petitions and became one of the biggest advocates for honor killings. As Rana tells in her first story of hearing about this epidemic, an honor killing can be defined as

“In the name of honor, a sixteen-year-old girl was killed by her family because she was raped by her brother. He assaulted her several times and then threatened to kill her if she told anyone. When she discovered that she was pregnant she had to tell her family. After the family arranged an abortion, they married her off to a man fifty years her senior. When he divorced her six months later, her family murdered her” (Unknown, 2008).

Last year in Jordan between 15 and 20 people were killed, strangled to death, stabbed or beaten by family members in the ancient tradition of honor killings. (IRIN, 2007). These crimes are used in Jordanian culture as a way to preserve the honor of a family and have been for years. The crimes are usually specifically geared towards women but it had increased to mixed gender with the fast adapting culture. This problem has become on the radar thanks to Rana Husseini’s public campaign to end the ridiculous rituals but it hasn’t been fully affective. Many of the murders face little or no jail time if convicted at all. A quote from Rana herself said, “It is often found out that victims were virgins but when the court looks at the case, the sentences they give are very mild compared to the crime.” This quote is one of many that express the discontent with punishment for honor crimes and the basic lack of awareness. In many cases Huessini has been the leading force in awareness and advocacy for the victims of honor crimes and made a major impact on the social issue. Besides organizing community events and being the lead part in many Jordanian women’s activist groups recently Rana has written her own book about honor crimes titled: “Murder in the Name of Honour: The true story of one woman’s heroic fight against an unbelievable crime.” This book “has poured all the passion, commitment, insight and frustration of 15 years of campaigning against murder in the name of honor. Her writing style is crisp and engaging. Her factual information and analysis are comprehensive” (Bland, 2009). Rana uses this book as a tool to continually contribute to the advocacy of a population with no survivors to advocate for them. She is truly changing social work by giving a voice to victims who have no other way to tell their story and creating information on an unknown subject to create more awareness.

This leads into a different type of change agent Mr. Noah Baker Merril. Noah is a young male humanitarian activist from the United States. Noah didn’t start off wanting to change the situation stumbled upon in Iraq, but once he did, he had to dedicate his life to it. Noah became passionate about humanitarian rights when he was on a visit in Jordan and stumbled upon displaced Iraqi’s. After seeing this Noah knew he had to make a change and advocate for the rights and care of all displaced Iraqi citizens. From there, Noah co-founded Direct Aid Iraq, which operates on a simple principle “Americans have a responsibility to support a peaceful future for Iraqis, and building relationships is part of that restitution process. The global network connects Iraqis with urgent medical care on a case-by-case basis, advocates for resettlement, and facilitates other organizations” (UNTE Reader Staff, 2009). Noah is still working on expanding his project and making it better known. He often gives speeches and advertising such as a new project where Internet surfers can download a free album with a donation it Direct Aid Iraq. Noah is creating awareness and fixing the situation of inhumane conditions and the displacement of Iraqi citizens affected by the war. A new social problem emerging with the fairly new Iraqi war and something that hasn’t been considered while protecting our country. In doing this Noah is setting up a project that will be carried on to help all citizens of Iraq and even spread to other war-torn areas. Since his project has begun Noah has already spread awareness and added another lasting contribution under his belt. He has expanded his project to other regions such as Mexico providing resources for indigenous populations. (“Noah baker merrils, 2008). Noah is a revolutionary young person who has an idea and turned it into something real. Many people can’t have a lasting impression or affect on a community like he has. His work with Direct Aid Iraq has become a household name and has many volunteers today. Like a true change agent he has sparked a movement to better others and create a positive change in society.

My leadership style is driven by passion. I feel I can be the most outgoing, stand up, kindhearted leader if I’m advocating for something I am passionate about. I enjoy working with large organizations that are in reach of the common goal and enjoy being in a leadership position in which anyone can turn to me for help or advice. One social issue I feel really passionate about is focusing on the lack of help in other countries. I am very passionate about being an international social worker and working to better and benefit other countries. I’m passionate about helping citizens in war-torn areas with medical, financial and psychological help. That’s why I chose these two change agents because they are bettering a community that is not in the United States. Their passions focus on over seas issues, which is something I feel very strongly about. Out of thirty students in a class, 29 of them most likely want to work in this country and I like to think I am the 1 that wants to focus on abroad issues. From Rana I have learned that being fearless and doing what you feel is right can spark a social workers passion into a full-blown movement. I think as a change agent, she shed light on an issue that was overlooked by people in her country. She dared to stand up against her culture and stick up for what she felt was right. As a change agent I want a lasting contribution of doing what is right regardless of culture or consequences, just like Rana. In Noah’s case he is changing the other side of the world at only 32-years-old. He is using his young age and passion to his advantage and creating a movement that is spreading worldwide. From him I have learned that being young means nothing, and you can get anything accomplished if you have enough courage to pursue it. This is another quality I’d like to have as a change agent. Being able to go after something I want and have a true passion at a young age to change the world. These two are very similar in the fact that they found an issue that was affecting them and decided to make small changes that evolved into a larger positive change. Courage is another trait both these change agents share. In Rana’s case she dared to go against her country’s culture and expose an ancient ritual that could have had serious repercussions but because she knew what was right she has to courage to change it. Noah saw a large problem he wasn’t sure he could change on a small scale but his willingness to help people who were caught in a war turned into something truly magical.

Want to donate to Direct Iraqi Aid?! The album I mentioned in my article?! Click below :)

http://ottmarliebert.com/rose/

References

Bland, S. (2009, June 15). Giving voice to the victims. Retrieved from http://archive.jordantimes.com/?news=17553&searchFor=rana%20husseini

IRIN. (2007, March 11). Jordan: honor killings still tolerated. Retrieved from http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=70634

Noah baker merril's page. (2008). Retrieved from http://www.internationalpeaceandconflict.org/profile/NoahBakerMerrill

Unknown. (2008). Rana husseini bio. Retrieved from http://www.activisminstitute.org/joo/index.php/en/meet-the-activists/rana-husseinis-bio?phpMyAdmin=63Zd5MNYvoB-puvrTCp0,rioaHc

UNTE Reader Staff. (2009, November). Noah baker merril: Cofounder, direct aid iraq. Retrieved from http://plato.bridgew.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_id=_2_1&url=/webapps/blackboard/execute/launcher?type=Course&id=_12662_1&url=

Potential Problems with Macro Work!?

Sometimes trying to work out the problems of macro practice can seem like trying to solve a jigsaw puzzle ....


After reading and researching about Macro Practice as it applies to social work their are evident presenting problems that could occur. Three presenting problems I chose to focus on are:
1. There is not enough leadership

2. There is not enough change in the community or system

3. Their are unintended or unwanted outcomes.

But how will we address these problems you ask? Well, that's what I'm here to tell you about. I'm going to briefly explain each of these problems in the macro work and how us social workers should address the problems!

Starting with ..
There is not enough leadership:
This is a loaded question but it breaks down fairly easily, without leadership there is no organization or set plan with a macro project or group work. Substantial leaders must be identified as the people that make sure everything comes together and runs smoothly for the client. There are a lot of processes and questions that the group must go through to elect a leader or two (depending on what the group decides) and to ensure that it's the right choice for them. A technique that I think is the most resourceful and works as the building block for solving this issue is: Does the leadership team reflect the community? The team and leaders must reflect the vision of the community work. A helpful tip, is to include someone from the community or organization's population you are trying to help and include them on the leadership team. This way the group has substantial leaders and a person who can relate and speak for the population on the leadership team. It ensures a successful project. Another important aspect with keeping this potential problem out of macro work is to: recognize your failures as well as accomplishments! It is critical that successful team acknowledges failures and reevaluates how to turn it into a success. Failure is all part of the problem and if you have substantial leaders who can turn around a negative situation, the group will be successful!

There is not enough change in the community or system:
Well .. that just won't do! This problem breaks down into performance and the quality of performance. One thing I really enjoyed reading about this particular problem is the optimism that goes with it. We can change the community if we try hard enough. A willingness to change the community and striving to accomplish goals will result in the right amount of change. In macro work any change is enough change! Regardless of what's accomplished, small change is still steps towards bigger, broader change.

Their are unwanted or unintended outcomes
Well in Macro work their are several ways to prevent this from becoming a potential problem and a few solutions for if it has become a problem. Ways to prevent this would be organization of a mission! A mission statement is a tool that can be used to set a goal for a specific outcome to organize an outcome for a specific community or group. Another way to stop unintended outcomes is to constantly gain feedback from the community or organization that you are working with. To ask members or leaders of the community for their feedback, we can adapt plans and missions to maintain the outcome intended for the community and fix any issues that arise.

It seems when reading about the potential problems there is a lot that can go wrong. As a social worker, it's overwhelming to see about all the potential problems that could arise with macro work. But with these specific solutions it is refreshing to always see a optimistic look with many options of how to solve any issues!

Saul Alinsky: The Democratic Process

Prophet of Power to the People: Saul Alinksy

Watching this video on Saul Alinksy I thought was very inspiring!

Alinsky was a well educated man who recieved college degree during great depression. But it was his passion for justice that made him one of the big names in social advocacy. After college he studied gang behavior from the inside and recognizing criminal behavior as symptom of poverty. This shifted his interest to the working class and he worked the streets in Chicago to learn about the working poor. He wanted to form an organization of workers to make a democracy and give rights to workers who at the time had been through pay cuts and no workmens rights. He worked with the poor to form an alliance between church, workers and businessmen to fight for these desired rights. After much community organizing and rallies, the Armour company recognized the union! After this Saul went on to create many campaigns and organizations such as Back of the Yards and T.W.O and continued a passion for social justice and macro work throughout his life and all over the United States.

Saul's most famous campaigns include:

Back of the Yards: Neighborhood Council.

-Turning a neighborhood slum into community organization advocationg for rights and helping the people of the Chicago neighborhoods. Supplying meals to poor children as well as welfare to struggling neighbors.

Labor Unions

- intensly organized through churches and workers, advocated for the rights of laborers and eventually recognized by Armour Company

T.W.O.

- Civil rights movement advocacy in Chicago

In all of these Saul kept all the same principles and theories which focused on using the community to advocate for the rights of themselves. Using large numbers of people to work together and make a difference.



Some of my favorite Saul Alinsky Quotes:
"becomes a contest of power: those who have money and those who have people. we have nothing but people"

"we are people and damnit you're going to listen to us!"

I thought this documentary was inspiring and well done. Although I do feel it moved a little fast through important movements and parts of Saul's work, I enjoyed watching a wide span of his work. I have never really had a truly Macro focused social worker whose work I could admire before. We have people in history who are said to start Macro practice, but regardless I feel Saul Alinsky was the first all macro social worker. His example and genuine care for people inspired me for macro work and social work in general. By viewing this documentary you can see his genuine passion for social justice and how he has inspired other people to continue his message on and work for community advocacy. It teaches me that we don't have to be the driving force behind macro and community organizations, we just have to be the spark that lights the driving force.

I also found an article and in reading a lot of people who find similarities between Alinsky and our president Barack Obama, check it out!:

http://www.truth-out.org/saul-alinsky-who/1328560706

Hey you, you know what macro is?

I think it's funny how as social work majors we are constantly required to interview other professionals and in response, other professionals always say "i remember having to interview somebody too." It's like us social workers are in this chain of constantly interviewing one another to gain better understanding of our field. Pretty unique in that aspect and pretty cool for us social workers if you ask me!

Any who, I decided to interview one BSW social worker at my internship, an MSW social worker and an MSW LiSW social worker with a BSW in Psychology. I wanted to try to get an array of different aspects from each stage of the social work profession:

Question 1:
Ask the social work practitioner for her or his definition of “macro social work
practice.”

SW1: I think that macro practice has a lot to do with looking at the client as a community. You focus and treat the community like you would treat one of your clients you meet with everyday. The same treatment and same advocacy, just with a group not one specific person.

SW2: Macro social work is the practice of community, organizations and oppressed populations. It is the advocacy and organization of services for groups of peoples who are in oppressed populations and require assistance.

Sw3: Well, I guess this depends on the type of Macro work you are looking at: Whether it's policy macro work, macro work in facilities, with communities or with families. Macro work can differ depending on where it is being practiced. In general it is social work on a larger scale then a student like you is used to, but it's different for every type.


Question 2:
Ask for examples of activities he or she performs that involve macro practice.

S1: Working with the Peer Mentoring group is what I'd consider my biggest macro practice responsibility. I have to organize with teachers to match kids with behavioral difficulties with kids who succeed in academics. I organize a space for them all to gather and work out activities. I have to ask the PTO for money to organize events and coordinate with the school social work supervisors to ensure that i'm affectively helping this group of kids.

S2: Team meetings for my clients. I have to organize with this team of people to advocate for my client.

S3: I have to be responsible for every kid in the school who is need of special attention. That's a large group of children with very diverse issues who all need to be advocated for special attention. It's macro with a hint of micro, because I'm attempting services for all these kids as a group who requires special education but only some of my clients may actually be selected.


Question 3:
Ask what percentage of his or her work week is devoted to macro practice activities.

S1: Eh, not a lot maybe 2 for planning and 1 for actual events.

S2: Estimated about 7 hours, around 1 or more per work day for organization of my clients needs on a macro basis.

S3: Well I have 4 hourly team meetings a week for different advoacy groups such as the Special Education group or one for all students who are on an IEP. With those, plus my own added community interventions for lower income clients around 10+ or - a few hours depending on the week and the issues at hand.


Question 4:
Ask what leadership skills are required to be a successful macro practice social
worker.

S1: I don't know! I honestly am still learning that everyday because I don't think I even possess half of them put I'll just say one is a strong voice. You have to speak up when needed, which I prefer to be more soft spoken, hense why I don't do much macro work.

S2: To be in macro work you have to be organized, willing to put in the work and relatable to all types of people. You have to have passion, without a doubt and accept others ideas. Anything less than that won't be as affective in their practice.

S3: Well, anyone can be a macro social worker they just have to want to do it. Most people don't know enough about macro to want to be be productive in it. But any social worker has the leadership skills to be a macro social worker, it's just passion for your work and desire to help better people. It takes a special kind of person to persue a career in macro but any social worker with passion can do it. We're all leaders, you know?

Love these answers! Across the board they are so different, I think you can tell the maturity difference between SW1: 21 years old, Sw2: 30(ish) years old and Sw3: 54 years old. They're all at such different points in their career! Some were more willing to give answers than others which is evident but it also makes for a great array of answers! This relates to the Horton and Freire reading it shows a difference of opinion between all parties speaking but it all shows the same underlying message: passion for work whether us social workers agree of disagree. I also like the relation to teaching because my placement is in a school and so much of this relates when they talk about dealing with systems of a school and teachings. My social workers are from the school setting and have similar responses about not realizing the systems a school can have.

Strengths Quest Assesment!

Here are my results from the StrengthsQuest Assessment: Very interesting, and pretty spot on if you ask me. Showing my parents that nothing came as a surprise to them!


I highlighted some parts I felt described me most!
Check it out and let me know what you think :)

Communication
You like to explain, to describe, to host, to speak in public, and to write. This is your Communication theme at work. Ideas are a dry beginning. Events are static. You feel a need to bring them to life, to energize them, to make them exciting and vivid. And so you turn events into stories and practice telling them. You take the dry idea and enliven it with images and examples and metaphors. You believe that most people have a very short attention span. They are bombarded by information, but very little of it survives. You want your information—whether an idea, an event, a product’s features and benefits, a discovery, or a lesson—to survive. You want to divert their attention toward you and then capture it, lock it in. This is what drives your hunt for the perfect phrase. This is what draws you toward dramatic words and powerful word combinations. This is why people like to listen to you. Your word pictures pique their interest, sharpen their world, and inspire them to act.

Adaptability
You live in the moment. You don’t see the future as a fixed destination. Instead, you see it as a place that you create out of the choices that you make right now. And so you discover your future one choice at a time. This doesn’t mean that you don’t have plans. You probably do. But this theme of Adaptability does enable you to respond willingly to the demands of the moment even if they pull you away from your plans. Unlike some, you don’t resent sudden requests or unforeseen detours. You expect them. They are inevitable. Indeed, on some level you actually look forward to them. You are, at heart, a very flexible person who can stay productive when the demands of work are pulling you in many different directions at once.
Ideation
You are fascinated by ideas. What is an idea? An idea is a concept, the best explanation of the most events. You are delighted when you discover beneath the complex surface an elegantly simple concept to explain why things are the way they are. An idea is a connection. Yours is the kind of mind that is always looking for connections, and so you are intrigued when seemingly disparate phenomena can be linked by an obscure connection. An idea is a new perspective on familiar challenges. You revel in taking the world we all know and turning it around so we can view it from a strange but strangely enlightening angle. You love all these ideas because they are profound, because they are novel, because they are clarifying, because they are contrary, because they are bizarre. For all these reasons you derive a jolt of energy whenever a new idea occurs to you. Others may label you creative or original or conceptual or even smart. Perhaps you are all of these. Who can be sure? What you are sure of is that ideas are thrilling. And on most days this is enough.
Woo
Woo stands for winning others over. You enjoy the challenge of meeting new people and getting them to like you. Strangers are rarely intimidating to you. On the contrary, strangers can be energizing. You are drawn to them. You want to learn their names, ask them questions, and find some area of common interest so that you can strike up a conversation and build rapport. Some people shy away from starting up conversations because they worry about running out of things to say. You don’t. Not only are you rarely at a loss for words; you actually enjoy initiating with strangers because you derive satisfaction from breaking the ice and making a connection. Once that connection is made, you are quite happy to wrap it up and move on. There are new people to meet, new rooms to work, new crowds to mingle in. In your world there are no strangers, only friends you haven’t met yet—lots of them.
Harmony
You look for areas of agreement. In your view there is little to be gained from conflict and friction, so you seek to hold them to a minimum. When you know that the people around you hold differing views, you try to find the common ground. You try to steer them away from confrontation and toward harmony. In fact, harmony is one of your guiding values. You can’t quite believe how much time is wasted by people trying to impose their views on others. Wouldn’t we all be more productive if we kept our opinions in check and instead looked for consensus and support? You believe we would, and you live by that belief. When others are sounding off about their goals, their claims, and their fervently held opinions, you hold your peace. When others strike out in a direction, you will willingly, in the
service of harmony, modify your own objectives to merge with theirs (as long as their basic values do not clash with yours). When others start to argue about their pet theory or concept, you steer clear of the debate, preferring to talk about practical, down-to-earth matters on which you can all agree. In your view we are all in the same boat, and we need this boat to get where we are going. It is a good boat. There is no need to rock it just to show that you can.

The History of Macro Practice?

Hello again everyone! Hope you're all still with me after watching that horribly awkward video below. But if you are welcome to blog post #3! I'm going to try to briefly as possible discuss the history of macro practice. Following the basic guidelines of: Who? What? Where? When? Why? I hope to give you a better historical understanding of macro practice itself.

So let's start from the beginning of: WHO?

Well, a lot of us say that it's hard to pin point the start of social work because people have been helping others for as long as we can remember. But in my perspective it was one woman who decided to look at social work on a community basis and work not just with individuals but an oppressed population of people, that woman? Jane Addams. Often referred to as the mother of social work, Addams was the first one to deal with community organizing. Jane is most recognized for her work in Chicago in poor neighborhoods. She noticed a problem of living situations being ignored by the people of Chicago and a large population of people suffering on the street and formed a plan to help organize and take care of people. But her duties were on a larger community wide scale ... she was made chairman of organizations while still communicating the needs of her Hull-House. I believe she first started macro practice but she worked out how to communicate the needs of an oppressed population, working on the larger scale with organizations while maintaining her bond with the community.

But while looking at the WHO .. you can also look at the oppressed populations because it is them who started macro practice. These communities of people who required help are really the ones who started macro.

On to the next one: WHAT?

Macro practice of course, duh!
This video shows a brief history of macro social work:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rgt_URMYhds

But really ... let's get into the WHERE?

This one is hard to answer because honestly if you ask where did macro practice start? EVERYWHERE! But if we could pinpoint some specific places that macro practice was born some articles suggest Columbia University which was the first place to offer classes in social work in 1898. These first teachings and ideas of what social work is as a whole, contributed to the start of macro practice and social work itself.
But there are many places where macro social work started itself, where people began advocating for groups of people who needed help:
Such as the woman's rights movement can be traced back as one of the earliest examples of macro social work in history. Women got together, organized protests, conferences and events to raise awareness and advocate for the oppressed population of woman with no rights! How amazing is that? An organization made a plan and found a way to help improve the population of an oppressed population. Sounds like amazing macro practice to me!

okay so, WHEN?

One academic article points the when to around the great depression. Although macro has always been a part of social work is wasn't more commonly recognized until the issues that were brought on by the great depression. For example, the Great Depression introduced the concept that society is now responsible for the well being of the individual. This introduced a new world of social workers that were responsible for things like: welfare, social security and workers compensation. These groups of people and different types of social work introduced the real meaning on macro practice. The G.D. changed social work and macro work onto a much larger, community based scale but also with a lot of community organizing for the oppressed and even the not-so oppressed.


now WHY do we ask?

Simply because the new era demanded for it. As our society developed and adapted to newer technology, demands and problems social workers had to do the same. After the great depression our society was demanding for more work in the communities and with organizing efforts to help oppressed populations. Especially with the recognition of ageism, sexism and racism becoming a precedent in the culture of society. As talked about when reading Sen, as this issues were becoming in the forefront of society, social work had to adapt to support the cultural biases and use leadership skills that would help the people affect by negative policies. The bottom line is, because our society was changing, and oppressing more groups, social work had to change to a wider scale view of communities and help as best as possible.


This is just my little broken up interpretation if some of the scattered history of macro work and how it came to be the values we as social workers value today!

Barker, Robert L. (1998) Milestones in the Development of Social Work and Social Welfare Washington, DC NASW Pres

Eisenberg, B. (1998). History of the movement. Retrieved from http://www.legacy98.org/move-hist.html

"Jane Addams - Biography". Nobelprize.org. 7 Feb 2012 http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1931/addams-bio.html

Schoech, D. (2005). Historical development of macro practice. Unpublished raw data, University of Texas, Arlington, Texas. Retrieved from https://docs.google.com/viewera=v&q=cache:PTD0aK09QekJ:wweb.uta.edu/faculty/schoech/cussn/courses/5306/Powerpoint/5306_history_S2005.ppt

Stryaert, J. (2009). History of social work: overview. Retrieved from http://www.historyofsocialwork.org/en/canon.php

Pre-Video Post!

Hi again everyone!


Enjoy this painfully awkward video of my Assignment #1 post :)




Thanks for watching!
Also, this is a photo from the Invisible Children [25] Event that I spoke about in my video!
and here's a link to the website if you want to learn more information:
www.invisiblechildren.com

Post #2: The Clothesline Project

Hello again!


This post brings up a new subject of an event that I'm encouraging all students to attend and educate themselves about ... but first I'm going to try to educate a little on this project and the awareness it raises! This revolutionary project is called: The Clothesline Project.


The Clothesline Project was started after an alarming statistic was brought to the attention of people after the Vietnam War. 51,000 women killed by domestic violence. This newly developed statistic brought new attention to something that was previously overlooked. Rachel Carey-Harper presented the idea of The Clothesline Project and in October of 1990, 31 shirts were displayed in Hyannis, Massachusetts. Rachel originally presented the idea of using shirts because in history woman used hanging laundry as a time to share secrets and exchange information. It was this idea that sparked the idea of using T-shirts on a clothesline as a way for woman to express their pain, share stories and realize they are not alone.

From this history The Clothesline Project was born as a "provocative, in your face educational and healing tool" ("History of the," 2004). Since the first 31 shirts the project has expanded to over 500 national projects and more than 50,000 shirts. The issue of domestic violence becomes clearer with the increasing support and specific focuses on: those who died of violence, battered or assaulted, survivors of rape and sexual assault, incest, attack on sexual orientation or political views. The Clothesline Project is also dedicated to raising awareness and educating men and woman so there is not excuse of why there is increasing numbers of domestic violence.

As awareness raises The Clothesline Project's message is spreading to nation and campus wide events! Like at Minnesota State University where during Sexual Assault Awareness Month in 2009 they displayed shirts, hosted an open mic event and marches across campus to raise awareness (Pilnick, 2009). The successful event encouraged younger woman to take the microphone, share their story, make a shirt and encourage other young woman with similar situations to do the same!

In Building Powerful Community Organizations by Michael Jacoby Brown ... It speaks of the need for reminders of our connections within an organization. This relates to the community intervention of The Clothesline Project because as membership of a community becomes stronger, so does it message. As portrayed with this project the sense of community is everything with raising awareness and making victims feel less like victims and more like survivors.

I encourage all my fellow students to attend an event to raise this same awareness on April 9th!

Together we can build a community where we all support each other :)


If you'd like more information, all of the history of the project and information above can be found at: www.clotheslineproject.org


Until next time ...
x0x0 Lacey





History of the clothesline project. (2004, October 6). Retrieved from http://www.clotheslineproject.org/History.html

Pilnick, L. (2009, April 3). Take back the night. Retrieved from http://www.mnsu.edu/news/read/?id=old-1237840758&paper=wcenter

My First Post!

HELLO there! And welcome to my blog!

My name is Lacey and I'm going to change the world one day. I'M FROM the town most famous for bringing you ocean spray and all that delicious cranberry juice, Middleboro MA. My town is very small with not a lot of people, one of those .. people marry other people from Middleboro, have children and raise them in Middleboro where the cycle repeats. But I grew up with a passion to help people and a fascination with other cultures and people ... hense BRINGING ME TO SOCIAL WORK and hopefully one day international work. I'm itching to travel the world and experience everything it has to offer. I'm INTERESTED in social work practice with communities and organizations because I think macro work is incredibly interesting and rewarding (and a better fit for me!) than micro work. Although I know I'll learn a lot I'm HOPING TO LEARN how to work with groups and view social work from a larger scale. Some of the things that have made a REALLY GREAT CLASS for me is classmates! Really having a support team and a group of people who understand the pressures of the major, it's my favorite!

If I could have ONE MAGICAL POWER, it would be to read minds. I'd love to fly but I'm sure I can hand glide someday. I always want to know what goes on in peoples minds and listen to there thoughts for a day ... I don't consider myself very interesting but I guess here are FOUR INTERESTING facts:
1. I ACTUALLY voluntarily own a Poodle and his full name is: Prince Brady Edward Tubbs Craig
2. I've never drank chocolate milk before
3. I've traveled to 5 different countries and hoping for at least 25 more.
4. I just returned from ISRAEL and it was the most amazing experience of my life!


Yes, ISRAEL! (That's me in the pink) And I'm covered in natural mud from the Dead Sea. This experience was the most culturally enriching and eye opening experience of my life. I realized how much I love other cultures and learning from them and my desire to help other people in other countries. I felt so at home there and realized what nice and truly kind people there on beyond our borders and now I'm currently looking at the University of Haifa for 2013 for a peace and conflict masters.

For FUN? I love to hang out with my family, the most important people to me! And play tennis (my first love). I played in high school and instantly fell in love with it. I love it because you can't blame a team or anything else on your loss or game but yourself.

If I could SOLVE ONE MAJOR SOCIAL PROBLEM it would be homelessness relating to poverty. Here and in other countries it's a huge problem that doesn't pay enough attention and with proper processes and laws could be an easier fix. Which leads into my DREAM JOB. I would love to work for the government. Working with policies, opening relationships with other countries and relating their problems to our country and how we can offer assistance. I don't even think that job exists but I'm willing to make it one .. especially meant for me.

I'm graduating in May 2012 and cannot wait to get out of school and into the world! Start my life for real and live it to the fullest and hopefully make a difference in the life of someone.

Until next time,
xoxo Lacey