{"id":191,"date":"2020-01-23T16:53:06","date_gmt":"2020-01-23T16:53:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/swpro.org\/syates\/?page_id=191"},"modified":"2021-04-27T00:57:38","modified_gmt":"2021-04-27T00:57:38","slug":"competency-2-engage-diversity-and-difference-in-practice","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/swpro.org\/syates\/bsw-portfolio\/cswe-social-work-competencies\/competency-2-engage-diversity-and-difference-in-practice\/","title":{"rendered":"Competency #2: Engage Diversity and Difference in Practice"},"content":{"rendered":"

Practice Behaviors<\/strong><\/p>\n

2.1 <\/strong>\u2013 Apply and communicate an understanding of the importance of diversity and difference in shaping life experiences in practice at the micro, mezzo, and macro levels.<\/p>\n

2.2<\/strong> \u2013 Present themselves as learners and engage clients and constituencies as experts of their own experiences.<\/p>\n

2.3<\/strong> \u2013 Apply self-awareness and self-regulation to manage the influence of personal biases and values in working with diverse clients and constituencies.<\/p>\n

\n

Being able to engage with a diverse range of people is crucial as a social worker. Even more, so is being able to appreciate and respect the differences in others, clients and constituents, in order to grow and become a better version of oneself, always evolving. The NASW Code of Ethics Section 1.05c states, “Social workers should obtain education about and seek to understand the nature of social diversity and oppression with respect to race, ethnicity, national origin, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, marital status, political belief, religion, immigration status, and mental or physical ability.” This being said, it is my personal focus to be aware of my prejudices and never stop growing. There is always more that one can do to grow their knowledge and experience in order to better themselves and as social workers, it is required of us.\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Evidence:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Evidence 1 (Field)<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

As an intern at the American Red Cross, I have had the blessing of working with extremely diverse clients. One of my responsibilities at ARC is working on the Diversity Panel. This is a committee at the chapter level (Southeast Tennessee) that strives to understand, evaluate and increase the diversity in our chapter. Not only does the panel look at client diversity and ensure that we are serving diverse populations, but we look at the makeup of our volunteer base. We want to have a large diverse range of volunteers in order to serve our amazing, diverse client base.<\/p>\n

Demographics of American Red Cross SETN Chapter<\/a><\/p>\n

Evidence 2 (Academic)<\/strong> \u2013<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

As a student at a Christian University, I have brought diversity to all of my classes. I want to use an example from my Human Behavior and the Social Environment course. I am very passionate about the right of someone who is suffering from debilitating conditions, to take their own life. I did my literature review paper in this class on just that topic. I think it’s important to remember that everyone’s circumstances are different and that what one person is willing to live with, is not so for others.<\/p>\n

Benefits of Physician-Assisted-Suicide: A Literature Review<\/a><\/p>\n

Evidence 3 (Additional)<\/strong> \u2013<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

I have made a conscious effort to not let personal biases get in the way of my work at the Red Cross. I took a survey that identifies personal bias and I have it saved at my desk. I like to look at it before I have a new client to remember that they are a person and treat them as I would treat my mother or friend. All of my clients deserve and get the same level of attention from me. I do not show favoritism or discrimination. I have below the link to the personal bias survey that I have incorporated into my practice.<\/p>\n

Click here to learn about your own hidden biases.<\/a><\/p>\n

Knowledge Used:\u00a0<\/strong>I have drawn from my course\u00a0Social Welfare as an Institution<\/em><\/span> to embrace and advocate for diversity. I have become aware of and able to identify my own personal bias and grow as a person and in the field of social work.<\/p>\n

Skills Used:\u00a0<\/strong>I demonstrate my self-awareness<\/span><\/em> a lot through fulfilling this competency. I have been able to identify situations and ask questions about my motives based on my self-awareness and intentionality to better myself in the future. My being part of a team on the diversity panel, I have also demonstrated\u00a0teamwork<\/span>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Values Presented:\u00a0<\/strong>The social work value of social justice<\/em><\/span> is important to the demonstration of this competency. All people are created equal and that is what I strive to do with my clients, regardless of my personal bias.<\/p>\n

Cognitive Process Used:\u00a0<\/strong>The cognitive process of\u00a0evaluating<\/em><\/span> has been instrumental to my fulfillment of this competency. I have been able to evaluate<\/em><\/span> my own behavior and thought processes to ensure that my actions and words are intentional regardless of the client I am serving.<\/p>\n

Affective Processes Used:\u00a0<\/strong>My effective process of organization<\/em><\/span> has shown through this competency and my ability to\u00a0choose\u00a0<\/em><\/span>to be fair and give equal treatment to all clients. Becoming self-aware of prejudice and bias is the first step to living an intentional life.<\/p>\n

Theoretical Foundation:\u00a0<\/strong>I have been able to draw from the\u00a0cognitive dissonance theory<\/em> to better myself as a person and a social worker. I know my personal bias and in order to appreciate the diversity in others, I purposefully give myself clients that would normally make me uncomfortable to be as intentional as possible about treating everyone equally and with respect.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Practice Behaviors 2.1 \u2013 Apply and communicate an understanding of the importance of diversity and difference in shaping life experiences in practice at the micro, mezzo, and macro levels. 2.2 \u2013 Present themselves as learners and engage clients and constituencies as experts of their own experiences. 2.3 \u2013 Apply self-awareness and self-regulation to manage the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":688,"featured_media":0,"parent":187,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-191","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swpro.org\/syates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/swpro.org\/syates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/swpro.org\/syates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swpro.org\/syates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/688"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swpro.org\/syates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/swpro.org\/syates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/191\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":448,"href":"https:\/\/swpro.org\/syates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/191\/revisions\/448"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swpro.org\/syates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swpro.org\/syates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}