economic development

As social workers, we are often thinking about people’s needs and what the solutions are to the problems our clients face. Frequently, the solution is finding a steady good-paying job, yet in a rural community finding employment can be difficult. Thus, some say small communities need economic development. According to Scales and Streeter, “Rural economic development strategies have been an important public policy focus since the nineteenth century” (2004, p. 209). However, although economic development in a small community is a valuable tool for job gain, it can also threaten the culture of the community, which needs to be considered.
Take for instance Del Norte County, after the logging and fishing industry crashed, the economy wasn’t doing so good. It became what Scales and Streeter refer to as a disinvested community, which is a community with few assets (2004, p. 206). Then in the late 80s, some community asset development occurred in Del Norte when a maximum security prison came in, which is now the counties largest employer, providing jobs for over a thousand people.
The prison succeeded in creating jobs for locals, not only for the people working inside the institution, but also for construction, garbage, maintenance, ect. Nevertheless, not everyone in the local community was in favor of the prison coming into town. Some concerns included bringing in outsiders, bringing criminals to the area, and having the town’s reputation change. Much of this has happened, not to mention the mental and physical health that has affected many people who work inside the institution. I recently stumbled upon this websitehttp://www.pelicanbayprisonproject.org/history.htm. It discusses the idea that Crescent City “sold its soul to the devil” by allowing the prison to set up camp in this small community.
This debate is somewhat similar to the Wal-Mart debate, which is also a business in Crescent City and where most people shop. Like the prison, we may not agree with the principles of Wal-Mark. However, Wal-Marts low prices and the prison’s jobs is what support most of the families in this community. Wal-Mart oppresses people and so do prisons. It is easy to see why these industries are harmful. However, using a strengths perspective there are some positives.
I would definitely like to see more jobs created by creating jobs in preventive services, so people don’t have to go to prison and there are still jobs, but given California’s current budget crisis and the tendency of our society to be crisis driven, I don’t see it happening anytime soon. So it’s a difficult choice. We want the best for the individuals we are working with, yet we also want what is best for the entire community in the long run. So is it the greatest good for the greatest number, or take one case at a time? Should people prevent the construction of new prisons and risk losing their economy, or create jobs for their community and contribute to the oppression of an unjust system?

assertivenss

You are not needed. Nobody really wants to hear that, but as social workers fighting for justice, isn’t that what we really want to hear? I think it is hard for some people to recognize, including myself, that social workers need to be replaceable. Being replaceable isn’t the reason people get into social work. People get into social work so they can be that one special person that makes a difference in someone’s life and sometimes that feels like being the one person who someone can depend on. However, having a client depend on you is not how social workers are supposed to operate. Social workers are not supposed to do everything in their power to meet the clients needs, but rather connect the client with resources and empower the client to meet their own needs. By doing this, hopefully, in the future the client will be able to assert their own skills and no longer need the assistance of a social worker.
Therefore, not only is it important for social workers to be assertive on behalf of their clients, but it is also important for social workers to teach their clients how to be assertive for themselves. Assertion is described as, “the act of standing up for one’s own basic human rights without violating the basic human rights of others” (Kelly, 1979, as cited in Hardcastle & Powers, 2004, p. 218). I feel that many people who don’t have proper assertive skills attempt to advocate for their needs, but inadvertently interfere with another person’s needs. For instance, consider an individual who is facing an eviction and in their experience the only way they know how to get their needs met is to use physical violence and threats. If this individual attempts this, they could face criminal charges of assault on top of an eviction. However, if they had assertive skills, they could possibly work a deal with the landlord and avoid the eviction. According to Hardcastle and Powers, professionals view assertive training as a resource for clients and believe it can enhance social functioning and self-esteem (2004).
Maslows hierarchy of needs prioritizes physiological needs above psychological needs such as self-esteem. However, I would argue that in some circumstances, if an individual had their psychological needs met before some physiological needs, such as employment, they may be more successful in fulfilling their physiological needs. Take for example career centers. They work with individuals on their confidence and prepare them for the interview that could lead to employment. Therefore, assertiveness skills are necessary at any point in a person’s life, not just when physiological needs are met.
It can be difficult for a social worker to not just fix for the client what appears to need fixing. However, just like why the teacher doesn’t do homework for their student, social workers must show their client how and then encourage them to do the work themselves. Hence, instead of cleaning up a person’s mess, teach them how to clean it up themselves. I have found that many parents get caught in this trap. Parents often care so deeply for their children that they will do anything for them, but unfortunately, the children grow up, not knowing how to survive in the real world. Thus, I believe it is more important to teach clients how to be assertive, than to be assertive on behalf of your client. Granted both can be done. Clients can learn assertive skills by watching their social worker. However, at some point they must be their own advocate. After all, who knows their situation better than the client them self.

For good or for bad, there is no doubt that social workers will always be needed. No computer can replace the work that a social worker does. However, part of a social workers job that is often forgotten about is teaching the client to become more self-sufficient and to have less of a need for professional assistance. It isn’t exactly job security, but it will assist in making individual’s lives and society better.

bullies

I know there are a lot of really great things about small communities, but from my own personal experience coming from a small community, I have learned there are also some not so good things. One of the great things is everybody knows everything about everybody, and one of the not so great things is that everybody knows everything about everybody. Thus, small communities can be beneficial to individuals who have a positive reputation, but if you come from a well-known family of trouble-makers, or have made some of your own personal mistakes in life, the stigma attached to your identity can be nearly impossible to escape and often times becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Growing up, my parents would always tell me that you don’t just represent yourself; you represent your whole family. Although that sounds a little heavy for a child, it was true. If you were good or bad at sports it reflected back on your family, and if you were running around with the “wrong crowd” that also reflected back on your family.
As most of us know, kids and young adults can be very mean, especially if there aren’t many entertainment options. Teens end up partying, making poor choices, and then they hear about it for the rest of their lives. To add to the gossip that already circulates throughout my hometown, I somewhat recently discovered a blog about my hometown’s “dirty laundry.” This site shallowly rates people on their appearance and contains multiple “hate” comments about other people, most of them mentioning intimate details about other peoples’ sexual lives. In my opinion the media and reality shows targeted at young people encourages the shallow judgments and hurtful gossip. These rumors and the gossip that comes from a community people identify with can be really painful, especially when one is young and they are searching for an identity and want to be accepted. Then, if someone really does seriously develop a problem, it is kept on the “down-low” because “the power of the fear associated with stigma often keeps families from accessing professional…services” (Scales and Streeter, 2004, p.136). Thus, families don’t want to make the pain worse by adding more humiliation by getting help.
When I was younger I was not necessarily above this bullying. I was a product of groupthink a time or two, which occurs when group members don’t speak up out of fear of upsetting the group. (Hardcastle, Powers, 2004). Hence, while my friends were bullying a “new girl,” I didn’t really do anything (I was only ten). She happened to be the principle’s daughter and came across to us a condescending. We bullied her enough that she changed schools. Although I wasn’t directly involved in this bullying later in life the girl informed one of my friends that I was a “side-kick” to the bullying. I still feel bad about that to this day. Our teasing left a large impact on her life and led her to taking the drastic measure of moving to a different community. Looking back and analyzing why the bullying took place was probably because we perceived the girl as a threat and we felt that she didn’t match our beliefs, which is no excuse, yet I’m sure this is the same reasoning other bullies have. It’s also interesting to look at the cycles of bullying. Many of us who went to that school had parents that went to that school and I assume we held similar roles as our parents. The bully cycles must be broken, and I think it is important for teachers, parents, social workers and anyone working with people to stop bulling, because the results can be dangerous. Members of communities give feedback to individuals within the community that the individuals then internalize. We want people to feel good about their communities not labeled and ostracized.

Competition in a community

One of the things that are really great about small communities is their ability to come together and support one another. This past weekend I went to a surf competition and it was a perfect example of how a geographic community can come together to support a community of culture. There were advertisements on the radio, numerous articles in the paper, local restaurants had signs that said “welcome surfers,” and there was an all around general excitement around town for the annual event.
While at the beach watching the surfers, I couldn’t help but think about how in other more populated parts of the county one would have to pay money just to walk on the beach and how lucky I was to live in a part of the world that is so beautiful. According to Rural Social Work: Building and Sustaining Community Assets, “Citizen participation…generates a sense of belonging to the community and gives ownership of the community to all members” (Scales, Streeter, 2004, p. 55). I could see how this is community pride is encouraged by events such as these because they are positive and memorable, which makes people proud to be apart of. The event was very family-friendly and all ages were able to compete. My favorite part of the competition was when a father and daughter went out together and the dad held his daughter up in the air as they surfed. Everyone watching on the beach clapped.
The people who put on the event are a family who owns a surf stop in town. Many other local businesses also sponsored the event, but the one thing I really appreciated was the fact that the family’s main competitor, another surf shop, also sponsored the event. Thus they were supporting a competitor in order to support surfing in general. I thought that was commendable. As said in Rural Social Work: Building and Sustaining Community Assets, “Solidarity, rather than competition and conflict, is what permits individuals to maintain and expand community assets by sharing common values, goals, and institutions” (Scales, Streeter, 2004, p. 56).

SURF’S UP!
They come, escaping the burnt-out
City air, board-wraps
Trailing from Amtrak doors, carrying
Glassine envelopes, precious
Invitations to the sea
Of sanity, welcomed by beach people
With joyous shouts, Surf’s Up!
The cry of life begins again,
And ends in a paddle-out with friends
That circles all our hearts to one.
Ray Clark Dickson

careful consideration with communities

Picture received from: http://www.nwhm.org/chinese/23.html
Not all community organizing is positive. Ross defines community organization as “a process by which a community identifies its needs or objectives, order (or ranks) these needs or objectives, develops the confidence and will to work at these needs or objectives, finds the resources (internal and/or external) to deal with these needs or objectives, takes action in respect to them and in so doing extends and develops cooperative and collaborative attitudes and practices in the community” (1967, p28, as cited in Hardcastle & Powers 2004, p 4). Therefore, a community can identify something as an objective that others outside the community may deem as unjust. For example, in the 1880s in the community I grew up in many road projects and mining activities were handed by Chinese Americans. In 1886 an anti-Chinese movement in Del Norte County peaked and most of the work the Chinese Americans participated in including the china towns they built was destroyed. The only evidence of the Chinese American’s work that was left was the roads. An example of a road project the Chinese Americans built is the Gasquet Toll Road, which provides a link between Del Norte County and Oregon. (http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/5views/5views3h38.htm)
Because community organizing can be so powerful and influential, it is important for social workers to honor the social worker values and ethics that guide their behavior, yet these values and ethics spark some confusion for me. The NASW code of Ethics clearly states social workers are to empower the vulnerable oppressed populations and to challenge injustices, which sounds great. However, I can’t help but wonder how these perceived injustices change over time as values change. Values are described in Community Practice as “generalized, emotionally charged conceptions of what is desirable, historically created and derived from experience, shared by a population or group within it, and they provide the means for organizing and structuring patterns of behavior” (Reamer, 1995, p. 11, as cited in Hardcastle & Powers, 2004, p. 19). I honestly believe that when the people were expelling the Chinese Americans, many thought that what they were doing was right. It is possible that the “white” community felt that their culture was being threatened and did what they thought was necessary to preserve their jobs and way of life. Of course we now know the absurdity of these claims. Nevertheless, at the time I don’t think these people believed that their actions would be now frowned upon.
By looking at this historical perspective, I sometimes worry that what I currently view as right may not look that way years down the road. For example, I work with a little girl who comes from a culture that discriminates against women. I find it difficult to support her empowerment without disrespecting her family values. I especially find it difficult because she is a minor and her parents still have a large amount of say over what she is able to learn. I worry that when doing social work and advocating for oppressed and vulnerable populations, I could, without meaning to, be changing and damages someone’s culture. Because who am I to say how they should treat their daughter? Those are my values. I feel examples like these points out the difficulty of trying to balance the social work ethics of respecting cultural beliefs and respecting equality. At the time it may seem like the right thing to do to advocate for equality, however, later on it may come across as ethnocentric and racist. Thus, because community organizing has the potential to leave dramatic impacts of many peoples lives, careful, consideration must be paid to the consequence of social organization and action.