Post - Video Macro Questions

From the time I began this class to now I have learned a lot about macro practice and how it works. After this class my definition of macro practice is advocating for individuals within a community. It is raising awareness and getting the community involved with change. To be involved with macro practice it is important to have leadership skills. Some leadership skills that I hold as a social work student include: being punctual, organized, reliable, consistency, willing to listen to other individuals ideas within the group and honesty. All of these characteristics are important to have when working with a large group of individuals to advocate, raise awareness and/ or change a community. I found that this semester really put these characteristics into perspective and what it is like to be a part of a macro intervention within the BSU community. Being a part of the week of community interventions was one way that I am an activist for social justice. It is important to me that all individuals within society and within a community are treated equally and with respect. During the week of interventions I showed my support by attending the events while also educating peers about Domestic Violence against both women and men. Although I am not interested in working with macro practice when I graduate I still intend to remain an activist for victims and survivors of Domestic Violence by educating individuals and possible clients of the prevalence and harm of the societal issue.

Domestic Violence Awareness Week at BSU

Evaluate Community Interventions:

            I will start off with I was unable to attend most of the Domestic Violence week due to being sick but from the facebook page and pictures I can tell that it was amazing and everything came together wonderfully. During the process and being involved with setting up the events during this course I realized that macro practice is not all fun and easy, it actually is difficult and frustrating.

Evaluation of the week is good to see what worked well and what did not work well, what needs to be changed for the future awareness weeks and what can be kept the same. With these events evaluation can be done by collecting reflections and thoughts from students, staff and others that attended to see what people’s thoughts are. It is even helpful to have questionnaires and evaluations at the end of each event for attendees to fill out. This is good because they are there, thinking about the event, they can fill it out and leave it at the door on their way out. If you try and contact people later through email to leave feedback they may forget or just ignore it because they are busy with many other things. I think the best evaluations come from the individuals who came to the events because no matter how much stress and frustration we went through as a class it really matters what the outcome was and what the viewers think; we want them to come back for more and we will do anything for them to come back and raise awareness.

                                  

To evaluate students like us, I think it would be productive to do a pre and post test. Most of us came into this course never having any experience with macro practice work. If we took a pre-test before getting our hands dirty both the students and the professor could see where we are at and what we may need to learn to be successful at macro community work. At the end of the interventions, when everything is all over, we could take a post test to see what we have learned and where we stand with knowledge of macro community work. The post test can also include our thoughts of what went good and what went bad during the week of interventions. The class could also discuss and evaluate the interventions together in class to hear each other’s ideas and thoughts. With discussion it can at times be sugar coated because some students may not want to say what they are really thinking or feeling due to maybe offending someone; this is why it is important to have a confidential survey or test to get more accurate evaluations.  With evaluation it will help future students and current students successfully conduct macro community work.
                                                                                          

Discuss your learning:

I was part of the promotion team and after everything has been done I feel that there are many things that I would keep the same and some things that I would change if I were to do this again. I learned a lot about myself over the course of this semester, especially with doing macro work. Working in groups and working off of ideas from a few classmates is manageable for me but I realized when there are three classes with twenty students in each I get anxious and out of my comfort zone. It is much easier for me to work individually or with a small group; I take more from the experience and the communication when it is a small tight nit group. Although I find that macro practice is just not for me, being in the community and seeing many individuals come together to support and raise awareness was amazing. Not only social work students or survivors of domestic violence came to the events but members of the community, including the president of BSU, which was amazing! I also realized that the community is not always a agreeable place and not everyone is going to support what you are advocating so one needs to be prepared for what the community may say or do if they do not agree.

It was interesting to compare my strengths test with my actual involvement with the community interventions. My strengths test described me well which is why I feel that I was not into the macro practice and really getting involved as I should have. According to my strengths test my top five themes are discipline; wanting routine and structure, realtor; wanting close relationships with others, futuristic; inspired by what the future holds, consistency; everyone is treated the same and everyone is involved and adaptability; tending to go with the flow of what everyone else is doing. Being a part of macro practice there is not much discipline or consistency considering with macro practice there is a lot of room for mistake and change and most times workers are flying by the pants of their seat.

I learned that macro practice is constant changing of plans to adapt to the needs of individuals and planning is difficult because everyone has different ideas and thoughts about what is being advocated. Domestic Violence against women is a major societal issue today; this is something I had knowledge about but to see victims and hear their stories made it more real than it has ever been for me. It is nice to have the community come together and raise awareness it helps the survivors know that they are not alone and that people within society do care. In five years from now I will remember that macro practice is constant planning and changing but in the end the week of domestic violence awareness at BSU came together wonderfully. My advice for future students that will be involved in the community intervention week at BSU would be, “Be involved and ask as many questions. Know what is going on at all times, even if that means you have to contact and communicate with other classes or classmates; not everything will be sent to you directly, networking is very important.”

Overall, this course has been a great learning experience for me. I have never experienced macro practice because I have always feared that I would be unsuccessful with it so it was nice to be forced to do something that I feared and most likely would have never done.

Aid Based and Community Based Interventions

I will admit it took me quite the while to do this assignment...I think I am still on spring break :) But after watching the assigned videos and reading the assigned articles i became intrigued and more aware of the different interventions within macro social work. There are two types of aid that the assignments were focused on which included aid based interventions and community based interventions. Aid based interventions are more like charity and people in society who are wealthy and well off giving this away. Aid based interventions are usually short term and tend to be unsuccessful. Community based interventions are when the community comes together to advocate and try and solve an issue. Community based interventions are usually long term and more successful because the interventions are thought out and implemented by the individuals directly affected.

"Kony 2012"
    This video was outstanding! It really was an eye opener about what really occurs in third world countries. "Kony 2012" is based on the current issues within Uganda. Currently there is a man named Joseph Kony who is abducting children and force them to kill people within society, even their own parents. These children are very young and are handed guns to complete work that Kony wants done. Kony makes the girls sex slaves and the boys soldiers. Many of these children have mutilated people's faces and killed many of their neighbors. Currently there have been 30,000 children abducted and forced into this rebel group. There is a man in the United States who wants to change this current issue in Uganda and wants Kony to be captured. The American Government at first did not listen but after a second time with many individuals behind them and many children from Uganda telling their story the American Government decided to send in troops to capture Kony. Unfortunately Kony caught on and changed his tactics. Americans helped begin this process of change by building a school and created some jobs. The best thing that was done was a radio network that would protect individuals from rebel attacks. The goal is to get all of the American people aware of the current situation and help Uganda not have to live the life they are living. This is being done by bringing the issue to the light and putting it all over news channels, newspapers and the media. Bringing this issue to the light will help Americans come together and want to help Uganda and with the knowledge and support hopefully Kony is captured.

"Pray the Devil Back to Hell"
     This was another moving film about women in third world countries who are facing many cruel societal problems. Many women and families are affected directly by the war that is happening. Women and families are without food, shelter and basic necessities. It was even noted that families could not even afford a cup of rice. The community was being controlled by cruel soldiers that did not have a care in the world for the members of the community. Women came together and knew that something needed to change so they did just that. The women of the community worked closely with individuals within their own community to advocate for peace. This was done by having many peace talks and rallies to raise awareness of what is going on and the issues that society is facing daily. Women really did not understand why the war was even taking place. There was talk that the war was between the wealthy and the poor and also over different race and ethnicity. It just did not make sense that there was so much suffering and cruelty due to war. This film made me upset because I felt that members of the community did not matter and the war was the number one priority. I understand that the war may have been important but the government should be aware of the community and the citizens living in it.

"Kony 2012" is an example of aid based interventions. This is so because Americans are raising awareness and trying to help Uganda get out of their current situation. The Americans helped Uganda build schools and create some jobs. Americans have also taken the stories of the Uganda community and have made them nationwide so everyone is aware of what is going on and how desperately Uganda needs the help and support in capturing their main issue Joseph Kony. "Pray the Devil Back to Hell" is an example of community based aid. This is so because the women within the community came together to raise awareness and advocate for their peace and rights to basic needs. The community came together to have many rallies and peace talks to educate the community on what was happening and what needed to be changed to make life better for women and children.

"Haiti Does Not Need Your Old T-Shirt"
     Believe it or not before I even read this article I thought that we as Americans were doing a good thing by sending products that were out of season to third world countries was a good thing. It threw me by surprise when I read that it actually hurts the economy of the third world countries. When American send over clothing and food it is causing businesses to loose their customers because they are getting their needs met for free. When this happens small business owners are not making the profit they need to survive. I guess giving is not always a good thing. Instead of giving to help a community it is more beneficial to educate and assist the community to do it themselves, which is helpful in the long run.

After doing all of the assignments for this week I really got a grip on how to become a good change agent in macro practice. As social workers it is our nature to help and sometimes we think, or at least speaking for myself, that giving is supporting and helpful. Education is the key to success and change within a community. It reminds me of the saying, if you give a man a fish he can eat for one night but if you teach him how to fish he can eat for a lifetime. From seeing these video clips and reading these articles this saying really began to make sense and help me understand the true role of a social worker and change agent.

Community Intervention Log

Hi Everyone!
   Feel like I have not been on this in forever..so busy with everything else. Anyways I have a lot of outside things going on and I am never on campus so my list compared to others is not intense..but here it is...

2/1/12 Watched Vagiina Monologues on YouTube

2/3/12 Watched a video on the Clothesline Project at UCLA

2/3/12 Watched a video on the Take Back The Night Rally at Georgia Southern University

2/19/12 Looked for discounts on items that can be used for awareness through Oriental Trading, I also gave Cristie a coupon for that site incase they wanted to purchase anything

2/22/12 Reserached the Clothesline Project for the posters

2/23/12 - 2/26/12 Created posters for promotion of the Clothesline Project

3/1/12 Posted some save the date posters

4/2/12 "Chalked" events all throughout campus so students would know what was going on and where it was happening

4/10/12 Attended Clothesline Project in RCC - supported and bought pins

4/11/12 Attended Amy's Story - Only was able to stay for key note speaker

4/13/12  Attended Vagina Monologues - supported and bought many items from A New Day.

Holding Ground

     Holding Ground is a documentary video of the Dudley Street Initiative and how it developed over time with community change. The Dudley Street Initiative focuses on the Dorchester and Roxbury areas of Boston. In both of these areas individuals lived in poverty and within society they were powerless. Ethnic backgrounds within this community included Cape Verde, Hispanic, White, African American, and many others. Only individuals who were white were able to move out of this poverty and into the city because banks would only give loans and mortgages to the white race while all others were at a disadvantage. The community needed help in revitalizing the community so it would no longer be in poverty. Areas were being used as dumping stations so families would view and live in filth daily. Many were becoming very ill due to the toxins coming from the trash dumping in vacant land areas. The city tried to help this situation but coming in and telling the community what they needed to do was not the answer. Community residents’ believed that individuals from the community should have say and run this plan of action for change. Only the residents who suffer daily know what needs to be done and what they want their community to change to. This reminded me of the reading by Hardina that I read. Hardina stated that citizen participation is important to ensure effectiveness and making services more responsive to the individuals in need (Hardina, 2003) Members from the community were then appointed by the community to implement a plan for change. The leaders began with surveying and speaking with the community as a whole to see what they wanted and what they believed the community’s largest issue was. Doing this the community leaders gained the knowledge that the community as a whole felt that the largest issue was the dumping of waste onto vacant land in the neighborhood. With this knowledge the community leaders took in urban planners who listened to the residents and took into account their ideas for change. In the readings by Netting, it was stated that for change it is important to work both horizontally and vertically (Netting) This community worked both ways; they include each other which is horizontally and they included the urban planners which is working outside of the community vertically. The leader of the plan for change really empowered the community by making them feel involved and letting them know that their voice counts. Hardina makes reference to this when stated that empowerment practice focuses on the importance of participation and decision making within the community (Hardina, 2003) Over a period of 10 years trying to get affordable housing onto the vacant property, instead of a dumping station, funding came through and affordable housing was built. The affordable housing brought back residents who were forced out of their homes because of poverty or house fires back to the neighborhood of where they grew up. Many individuals who spoke on this in the video were overwhelmed with excitement to get back to their community and neighborhood of which they refer to as home. Aside from the dumping stations another issue in the Dudley street area was drug dealing in the local park area. This was a quick fix when the community got the police to stand at the parks daily to patrol drug dealing and activities and events were planned for every day throughout the summer days for children and young teens. This was a place where they could come to interact and learn; something that was never done because of the illegal drug trafficking. In my reflection this change was great because children within this community needed an area where they could learn and grow. Individuals within a community are known to supposed to be able to advocate for themselves and they are ultimately responsible for their quality of life (Fraser, 2005) Throughout this entire process for change in the Roxbury/Dorchester area the residents of the community proved that they were responsible for improving their quality of life; they really lived up to their expectations of individuals within a community.

       I found this video to be extremely interesting and moving. I felt a connection to the video because my grandmother grew up in Roxbury and lived through the Dudley Street Initiative. After I viewed this movie I spoke with my grandmother about her experience, it was very inspirational. I learned that change is possible even if it takes years and years to be like it should be. I also realized that change will only occur if there are committed team leaders and players that are involved and persistent about change.

Fraser, J. (2005). Understanding Community Building in Urban America. Journal of Poverty , 23-43.

Hardina, D. (2003). Linking Citizen Participation to Empowerment Practice: A Historical Overview. Journal of Community Practice , 11-38.

Lipman, M. (Director). Holding Ground: The Rebuilding of Dudley Street [Motion Picture].

Netting, F. E. Understanding Communities. In F. E. Netting, Social Work Macro Practice (pp. 131-165).

Problems Crossed in Macro Practice

Macro practice is very large that many issues can arise within in the advocating group for change. Three areas that can cause issues within the group include not enough community participation, not enough money to sustain the program and there is no clear direction or communication within the group.

Not enough community participation.

Most of the macro work that is done is with bringing a community together as a whole to make changes within society. This can be difficult because some individuals may feel strongly about the change but do not participate in the movement. Participation for the community is very important because they are the individuals know firsthand what they want changed or worked on. One way that one can involve the community would be to send out a survey to all of the individuals in the community. This is helpful because people who may not have the time to put into the group can still report on their feelings and concerns. Getting individuals to be a part of the group actively can be difficult but there are many things that can be done to help recruit individuals. The main group that you want to focus on is the group of individuals that will most benefit from the change. The group should also try and supply language translators, child care, transportation and convenient times to hold the meetings. Another thing that the group could do would be to provide some incentives like banquets, awards and social events to make the group more engaging and fun. Once there is a group of people formed and dedicated it is important to continuously recruit and train individuals so the group is strong and successful with change.

Not having enough money to sustain the program.

Money is a large issue within society and having the money for funding of different events. The number one thing that needs to be in place when dealing with money is developing financial stability. In order to develop financial stability there needs to be a leader that can develop the plan. In the development of the plan the leader needs to determine if the program will be long term and invested so it is worth advocating for the amount of money they are looking for. After the plan is on its way to being developed there needs to be someone that will let everyone know what is going on and what the plan is all about and the group needs to see what money they need and what money they want. In order to receive this money for support of the group there are different things that can be put into place for instance fundraisers or being a part of society’s tax dollars. Aside from fundraising and looking towards the society for raising money, grant writing is a possibility. Grant writing is great because the money is from local businesses, the government, corporations and foundations. These are just a few ideas for financial stability for a group and helping a group raise money for their purpose.

Not having a clear direction or communication within the group.

Having many individuals working together can get difficult because there are so many individuals that you need to communicate with.  A way to keep the communication to make sure that everyone is on the same page would be starting by agreeing on the needs that need to be met within the society. Once there is an agreement on what the society’s needs are then development of an action plan needs to be put into place. In order to work all together individuals within the group need to be free from conflict and constantly communicating. Ideas on how to communicate with the group and society as a whole would be to post flyers, email, and word of mouth, create a website and/or send things postal mail. The main parts of communication are who, what and how. Who are you going to communicate the information to? What is going to be said through the communication? How are you going to communicate everything and get everyone on the same page? Communication is a large part of macro practice and community change so it is important to get all ideas organized and make sure everyone is in it together.

Bibliography

Troubleshooting Guide for Solving Problems. (2012). Retrieved February 14, 2012, from The Community Toolbox: http://ctb.ku.edu/en/solveproblem/index.aspx

Change Agent

     Many individuals are known for contributing to macro practice social work. Macro practice social work is working with society as a whole to fix societal issues. Two individuals that I found to be interesting and had and still have a large impact on society are Jean Henri Dunant and Van Jones.

            Jean Henri Dunant was born in May of 1828 and passed in October of 1910. He is well known for being passionate in humanitarianism and working closely with the Red Cross organization. The idea of the Red Cross was recognized in 1859 when Dunant came across a battle of bloody soldiers in Italy. Many soldiers were unattended and suffering from wounds (History). Dunant strongly believed that nations around the world should form relief groups to provide care for wounded men from the war. This would work by each society having a governing board where each member would recruit volunteers and train these volunteers for disaster relief. He organized local people to help with soldier’s wounds and to comfort them. In February of 1863 the Geneva Society for Public Welfare appointed Dunant and four other individuals to review and put this plan into action (Jean Henri Dunant Biography). By 1864 the plan was activated and the symbol was a red cross painted on a white battle field. Unfortunately in 1867 Dunant went bankrupt and everything began to go downhill; he was no longer a part of the Geneva Society. Shortly after he became very ill and remained in solitude until his death. He made a lasting impression on society with his contributes to the Red Cross and also winning a Noble Peace Prize in 1901 (Jean Henri Dunant Biography).

           

 Van Jones is another man in society who contributed to macro practice. He was born in 1968 in Tennessee. Jones is currently working as a social activist. Jones is well known for being the co-founder of three non-profit organizations. These non-profit organizations include the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Color of Change and Green for All (Van Jones Biography). He is also the author of The Green Collar Economy which defines green jobs within society. Along with his book he put together an organization to work towards putting green jobs in place for communities that are disadvantaged. With a strong practice in human rights, Jones is one of Americas leading individuals with creating pathways out of poverty and help rebuilding America’s middle class. Van Jones has received many awards and honors including being named one of the most influential people in the world during 2008 by TIME magazine, he was designated by the World Economic Forum as a young global leader and he was a recipient of the international Ashoka Fellowship (Van Jones).

            Both Jean Henri Dunant and Van Jones have had a lasting impact on society; as for Van Jones he is continuing to impact society today. I learned a lot from researching both of these social activists. I learned a lot about the Red Cross and how it came about. The Red Cross is a wonderful organization that helps individuals who are in need and less fortunate. It is great how society comes together and volunteers to help others within society or a community to better others lives. I found it interesting that the Red Cross came about because Dunant saw a war in Italy with many casualties and wounded soldiers laying in the field unattended. After the Red Cross Organization took off they were geared with assisting soldiers in battle. Van Jones also gave me knowledge on “green jobs” and how he enforced getting green jobs within societies that are less fortunate and unemployed so all have a fair chance to working opportunities. From his biography and successes within society he seems focused on social welfare and all individuals within society having an equal opportunity. One has impacted the other and both plus many other activist has changed issues within society little by little.

           

I am most passionate about changing the societal problems of poverty and welfare qualifications. If I were to become a change agent and work in macro practice I would want to work closely with Van Jones because of his interest in poverty and welfare. I strongly believe that there are individuals and families in society that need the welfare assistance while there are others who scam the system and are taking away from the true needy. It will take a long time to get these societal issues under control. For the qualifications for welfare I feel that a family or individual can be on welfare but only for a short while. Currently welfare qualifications depend on family size, gross income and medical emergencies like pregnancy, disability, homelessness or unemployment. Individuals can only remain on welfare for up to two years and they need to be showing proof of job looking. (US Welfare System - Help for US Citizens) This law to me is great except for the people who work the system and remain on welfare for a longer period of time. I know many people who are and have been on welfare for a long time and they have no interest in looking for a job. In order to change a societal issue within society it takes a group of individuals to advocate and leaders to take charge. Leadership is a large part of macro practice and implementing change. I strongly believe that leaders should have characteristics that include effective communication, dependability, being able to work both independently and within a team, they should not have any fear of promoting and trying to change a societal issue that many may feel is not an issue. These characteristics and skills of an individual that is a part of macro practice or change help the process run smoothly and they help assure that everything is in order.

            As I stated previously I would like to change a few things within society today including welfare qualifications and poverty. Poverty really has taken a toll on our society because everyday more and more individuals are losing their jobs and cannot afford to pay on their homes which causes foreclosure. Society really needs to come up with some alternatives to help supply more jobs for society. The economy today is very low and I feel it will get to a point where poverty will be so bad that it will be difficult to reverse. Both the issues of welfare and poverty will take many individuals to change and it is a long time coming but that does not mean that it is not possible with a leader and advocates.

            If I were to become a change agent and have a lasting impression on society I would focus on teen pregnancy. In my view teen pregnancy is a societal issue that is easier to approach and hopefully change while poverty and welfare one needs to go through the government and policies which could take many, many years. There needs to be more education on sex education and preventatives. Many individuals think that supplying preventatives like condoms in middle school and high school is condoning the teens to have sex. I feel that it would only help prevent many of the teen pregnancies that are occurring. Some teens are embarrassed or just do not have the money to go buy condoms to have safe sex which leads to a child of which they also cannot support. Another issue which I know is already being passed is supplying free birth control. I have spoken with many teens and friends who are simply not on birth control because of the expense; I guess some do not realize that it is much cheaper than having a child to support. Macro practice is a hard job and it is hard to advocate for a large portion of society but I know that with dedication and hard work issues within society do have the probability to change greatly over time.

Works Cited

History. (n.d.). Retrieved February 8, 2012, from International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies: http://www.ifrc.org/en/who-we-are/history/

Jean Henri Dunant Biography. (n.d.). Retrieved February 8, 2012, from The Official Web Site of the Nobel Prize: http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laurenates/1901/dunant-bio.html

Mirpuri, A., Feldman, K. P., & Roberts, G. M. (2009). Antiracism and Environmental Justice in an Age of Neoliberalism: An Interview with Van Jones. Antipode, 41(3), 401-415. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8330.2009.00680.x

Van Jones. (n.d.). Retrieved February 8, 2012, from Center for American Progress: http://www.americanprogress.org/experts/JonesVan.html

Van Jones Biography. (n.d.). Retrieved February 8, 2012, from http://vanjones.net/index.php?p=bio

 Von Planta, M. (2007). Jean-Henri Dunant: The Founder of the Red Cross organization. Resuscitation, 73(1), 8-11. doi:10.1016/j.resuscitation.2006.11.019