Competency 2: Advance Human Rights and Social, Racial, Economic, and Environmental Justice
Introduction: As a professional social worker, it is my duty to advance human rights through evidence-based and culturally-informed practices for interacting with diverse populations at the micro, mezzo, and macro levels. I will maintain awareness of my own biases and seek to serve people with dignity and respect through leading, developing, and implementing evidence-based practices that advance social, racial, economic, and environmental justice.
2A – Demonstrate leadership in developing and implementing evidence-based practice with relevant strategies that advance human rights at the individual, family, group, organizational, community, research, and policy levels.
Course Evidence: For SOCW 618, I worked with a team to create a proposal for a new non-profit organization. We demonstrated social work knowledge of advocacy and human rights by creating a resource center for foster parents in the Chattanooga area called Foster Parent Care Network. The FPCN Organization Proposal Final Paper includes a brief of the organization. Under Target Population (page 6-7), we described how this organization would advance human rights at various levels. We utilized the values of social justice and dignity and worth of the individual by designing the organization to support marginalized populations within our community.
2B – Implement culturally-informed strategies with diverse populations.
Field Evidence: All of my clients have experienced significant trauma. After participating in Trust-Based Relational Intervention training, I have implemented many culturally-informed practices into my work environment. For example, I ordered various fidget toys and give them to clients in face-to-face meetings. I also posted TBRI practices to my office wall as a reminder for client interactions. After using my skills of self-awareness and cultural perception, I recognized that I could benefit from learning more about the black community and how race impacts young adults. I completed a training about Serving African American Youth. The majority of my clients identify as black or African-American. I used the affective process of listening and considering to determine it would be beneficial for me to learn more about racial differences to better serve my clients. Through this training, I used the cognitive process of interpreting information and comparing it to my experience as a white woman. I also applied new knowledge of communication differences to my interactions with clients.