Personal Statement: My Journey In The Social Service Field

I have been working in the social service field for many years with children, youth, families and individuals both one on one and in groups. Returning back to school was a decision not only about furthering my knowledge, but also about achieving a goal, that I feel, that I have always been on path to, being a Social Work. The further into my life journey I get the more I realize that social work fits for me. My journey as a student is not only about learning to identify my privilege in order to best support individuals, group and communities, but also about my own identity as a practitioner. I hope that during this BSW I can utilize the skills, perspective and theories to support individuals that I am working with to promote their well-being
I need to remain open to hearing stories from other’s, provide a safe space for my colleagues to share their stores and work to support a team environment where each student feels safe to participate at their individual level of learning. I need to use a critical perspective and intersectionality lens to ensure that I am not perpetuating oppressive practices. I found that after a few courses on oppressive practices I have identified everyday social justice issues that I have not thought of before. I am also learning to articulate social work practice as it relates to the Code Ethics. For instances, we have two students at my workplace. The other day when I was debriefing with one of the students, I was able to help her see how the practice, questions and outcome of the client meeting directly related to the social work code of ethics and practice model something I would never even have thought to do in the
It is important that I remain mindful of how my own personal beliefs and values influence my lens and reactions with relation to interpreting assignments, classmate’s perspective and future learning. By doing all of these I feel that I can maintain professional boundaries with myself, colleagues and teaching staff in order to support self-guided learning for myself and colleagues. As a student, I feel that I can engage ethical practice by critically reviewing literature to identify perspectives and lens that may be oppressive or highlighting