Narrative Statement

Many struggle against poverty.

Millions are faced with economic depression.

Children suffer without a place to call home or food to eat.

Who's called upon to address these challenges? Social workers are called. Social work is a profession of the pursuit of social justice that has a discipline involving the technical application of social theories and research methods to enhance the quality of life and to the development of the full potential of individuals, groups, and communities in the society.It addresses and resolves social issues, their causes, their solutions, and their human impacts at every level--whether it's micro practice (helping individuals fit better into their environment) or macro practice (changing the environment so it works better for individuals) of society.

The history of the social work profession is key to understanding social work as well as the various roles of social workers. Social work has its roots in the struggle of society to eliminate poverty and the resultant problems. Therefore, social work is intricately linked with the idea of charity work. In the Profession of Social Work, Segal, Gerdes, and Steiner describe the beginnings of the idea of charity work. They state, "during the early 1800s, most people lived in small communities and farming was the primary livelihood. By the end of the century, a tremendous influx of immigrants contributed to the explosive growth of cities, where factories engaged in the large-scale production of goods. With so many people living in crowded cities, far away from wages, social need grew. Local communities could no longer meet the needs of people, and poverty -related social problems increased. Two attempts was respond to social need that developed during the latter part of the 1800s were the Charity Organization Societies and the Settlement Movement. The profession traces its history to the actions and principles of these two organizations."
The Charity Organization Society was first established in Buffalo, New York, in 1877 as an organized effort to eliminate poverty. The society's goal was to discover what cause poverty among individuals, eliminate the causes, and rid society of poverty. The society focused on the individual and reflected the belief that poverty was a character defect. Therefore, those principles gave rise to the use of "friendly visitors," who were trained to guide people to change behaviors that contributed to poverty so they could become productive. Mary Richmond displayed leadership in the Charity Organization Society movement, and thereby, remains a key figure in the early development of the social work profession. In 1917, she wrote and published Social Diagnosis which was the first social work practice book to present professional ways to identify clients' issues.The Settlement Movement believed that in order to help poor people, workers had to live within the community and provide services from their dwelling or settlement. The movement's philosophy was that individuals well-being was directly linked to external surroundings. The Movement's goal was to shorten the gap between people who were poor and people who were wealthier. Settlement worker's focused on changing the environment by advocating for better neighborhood services, public health programs, and employment conditions.

The International Federation of Social Workers states, of social work today,
"social work bases its methodology on a systematic body of evidence-based knowledge derived from research and practice evaluation, including local and indigenous knowledge specific to its context. It recognizes the complexity of interactions between human beings and their environment, and the capacity of people both to be affected by and to alter the multiple influences upon them including bio-psychosocial factors. The social work profession draws on theories of human development and behaviour and social systems to analyse complex situations and to facilitate individual, organizational, social and cultural changes."

There are six key values and ethics that are essential in the profession of social work and influencing people's behavior that appear in the National Association of Social Workers (NASW). The key values and ethics are as follows.

Service: helping people in need and to address social problems.

Social Justice: striving to create a society in which all people, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, economic status, age, and/or physical or mental ability, have the same basic rights and opportunities and can develop to their fullest potential.

Dignity and worth of the person: supporting cultural and ethnic diversity as well as the right of each client to express his or her own identity.

Importance of human relationships: working with all forms of relationships on the individual, family, group, organization, and community levels.

Integrity: adhering to the standards of behavior required by the profession.

Competence: striving to further develop their areas o expertise and increase their understanding of people strength's, problems, and needs.

In conclusion to the complicated and often vague question that defines social work, self-determination is a terminology that social workers strongly believe it's a person's right to decide what is best for herself or himself, although they help people.

...to be continued