Diversity
Engage diversity and difference in practice.
“Social workers understand how diversity characterizes and shapes the human experience and is critical to the formation of identity. The dimensions of diversity are understood as the intersectionality of multiple factors including age, class, color, culture, disability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity and expression, immigration status, political ideology, race, religion, sex, and sexual orientation. Social workers appreciate that, as a consequence of difference, a person’s life experiences may include oppression, poverty, marginalization, and alienation as well as privilege, power, and acclaim.” -CSWE (2008)
Working with my student cohort team in partnership with the Coalition of Latino Leaders (CLILA) to plan a financial educational program for a low-income Hispanic population
Practice Behaviors
a. Develop and implement proactive strategies for ameliorating discrimination.
Learning evidenced by:
- Journaling about client cultural values that could impact his/her treatment, in addition to my own personal biases that arose during practicum. See Journal 16 and Journal 17 for examples.
- Researched post-traumatic stress disorder, wrote a paper on the subject and created a presentation on Post-Traumatic Stress to educate other social work practitioners.
- Writing various research and/or reflection papers in which I critically analyzed the topic or scenario and developed a reaction/response to ameliorate discrimination. For examples, see this reaction on working with minority ethnic families, this paper on social work interventions in a poverty stricken situation, my paper on cultural competency in clinical practice, my Group dynamics paper, my Self-Awareness paper, and my Financial Management for low-income populations lit review.
b. Optimize resiliency and capacities of diverse populations
Learning evidenced by:
- Facilitating a 6-week anger management group for probationers and parolees using this curriculum published by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). I also monitored the effectiveness of said class using a pre/post assessment and a course evaluation to determine the success of the class and to make improvements where necessary.
- Creating a Survey to assess a Hispanic community’s needs, compiled a CLILA- Community Assessment from the results, then crafted a comprehensive Financial Literacy plan to implement the project.
- Implementing the Financial Literacy Project in accordance with the community’s needs as found through these surveys, then crafted a presentation and presented it to the community: How to Prepare a Family Budget (English), How to Prepare a Family Budget (Spanish)
- Being involved with the peer support/integral officer survival training to teach officers not just how to survive, but how to live.