Interviewing A Social Service Lobbyist

Living in such a tumultuous society, finding somebody to ease the stresses and the pains brought about by the world indeed helps so much especially when it comes to facing the challenges of life. This is the reason why the existence of social workers and Non-government Organizations aiming to help the whole human population to cope up with life is an important factor considered whenever voluntary work is being discussed. With regards to social work, as the name of the job suggests itself, the main focus of NGO’s involved in social work is the social issues that are found in the human community.Because of this, they have continuously tried in alleviating the human systems of living through their assistance in the issues and problems that are mostly considered as the main reasons of stress and depression in the community. With issues on psychosocial difficulties emerging in the entire human community, the social workers have an important role when it comes to supporting the said people caught up in those situations hard to deal with as mentioned above.It is more often than not that the nature of social worker’s job is closely related to mediating between agencies and the clients needing their services and yet does not have any means or power to do so.

As a social service lobbyist in Oregon, the interviewee had been involved in several responsibilities of creating better programs for the social institution’s aim of serving the public better through voluntary and assisted work by the social workers.It is the main advocate of a social service lobbyist to give the best service possible to the society. It is through this particular advocate that one is able to create the reasons for staying within the service as per mentioned by the interviewee. However, as the interviewee confesses, the issues of social work services today does not only deal with that of the external affairs of the institution, she even adds that the fact behind the issues of social work service today is more on the internal aspect of the organization.According to the interviewee, this is the most crucial phase of her job as she needs to have a close observation of the situation so as to ensure that the programs of the institution are not held simply because of a simple conflict between the members of the organization. Among the gravest issues she have had to deal with was that of racial discrimination issues among the members as they are mixed with other volunteers from other countries and are thus having a different level of cultural assimilation.

She further made it certain that these particular problems usually spurs out from simple misunderstandings towards huge personal issues that makes the workers less capable of doing their duties to the institution and the organization in a better and sound approach. According to the International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW) and the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW), the main definition and role of social work in the society are as follows: “The social work profession promotes social change, problem solving in humanRelationships and the empowerment and liberation of people to enhance well- being. Utilizing theories of human behavior and social systems, social work intervenes at the points where people interact with their environments. Principles of human rights and social justice are fundamental to social work.

” (The American Psychological Association) But although this is true of the main goals of social work, there are still some certain important issues needed to be addressed within the systems of organization making up and bonding social workers together.One of the said issues is the existence of racial discrimination. This issue actually affects the social work systems both in and out of the organizations of social workers. Internally, this is naturally because of the fact that social workers are usually made up of people from different countries, cultures and races. In this way, some conflicts are present because of the fact that each individual joining the social works are widely diverse and have different views on several points of concern within the social work.Externally, this issue is usually developed when social workers tend to chose the people they opt to help.

In the Journal of Women and Social Work in an article entitled “What racial discrimination does to the social work society”, it has been mentioned that racial discrimination is indeed considered an organizational sickness especially when it comes to working ethics (Dinerman, 2005, 11). Usually, this issue of diversity causes a lot of problems within the system of assistance that social workers give to their fellowmen.It has been mentioned too that racial discrimination also sets the workers apart and drives them to choose who among the needy people should they help basing upon the cultural or racial qualification of the person to be helped. On the other hand, the British Association of Social Workers say otherwise, to them “racial discrimination is an opportunity opened to the social workers in showing their unity and bond beyond the cultural differences they have from each other (1999, 14).

True, if the issue is carefully dealt with, racial discrimination could bring different people joined by an organization in a stronger bond.It may be considered an irony by many. However, because of the fact that the right ways of facing the dilemma had brought many social organizations more bonded together than separated by differences, it is really not impossible to make the issue of racial discrimination “a bridge to better opportunities of bonding with people from other cultures. Seeing differences as a positive factor in the society which sets the uniqueness of each individual in the entire human community” (British Association of Social Work, 1999, 12) is indeed a key factor in making racial diversity a successful aspect of the social organizations.Regarding this issue, the interviewee further added that the situation on discrimination among members of the social work is considered by many as a simple problem that could be solved through strategy.

On her part, as a major contributor to the progress of the institution that she works for, she said that she had laid down a particularly effective solution to the matter which she presented as follows: The following are the six ways in which social workers are able to control if not completely eliminate the dreadful effects of racial discrimination to organizations iming to serve the community.As these six practices are implied within the rules and regulations of the organization in dealing within the organization and with the people in the community, the goals of the organization is observed to have easier ways in achieving their goals as a group. These practices are as follows: • Having oriented as social equalizers, the social workers become more capable of handling disputes and controlling both their fellow social workers and themselves in dealing with social discrimination. Seeing everyone as a part of an important purpose in the society helps every social worker to work well with their colleagues as well as serve all people of all races amidst all the differences they have against others.• Having the aim to give pure and undoubted service to everyone also allows the social worker to serve the people with purpose, disregarding the accent or the color of the skin of any person they ought to serve in the community. • Being considerate with what the person needs and not where the person cam from is also an important factor to be considered by the social workers.

As repeatedly mentioned, the main focus of social groups is to be of service to others, and failing to do such an aim is a betrayal to the profession. • Having fair views of everyone may not be that easy, especially if the person has significant cultural background that has a negative impact on the other. However, if both parties would be able to consider the fact that social work is bounded by love for one’s fellowmen, the hatred brought about by discrimination could as well be covered by concern for others welfare.Making the best out of one’s time and neglecting unnecessary details about senseless things could as well help a social worker see the importance of doing “first things first.

These means that prioritizing social service above all could drown the ideas of racial discrimination completely. (Source: Gutierez, 2006, Pp 4, 5). Indeed, considering the six major practices of ethical social service given by an excellent social worker to his or her fellow workers and to the people, gives a promising successful result of hard work for a certain social group.From this particular interview, the interviewer found out that social workers are indeed facing a huge challenge in terms of their involvement in the process of helping the society.

The Social Service Lobbyist that has been interviewed particularly showed a different perspective for the interviewer in terms of seeing the hardships that social workers need to deal with simply to be able to manage their ways in reaching out to others who are in need.It is also through this study that the interviewer learned how valuable the respect for privacy and secrecy is in terms of the job of the Social Service Lobbyist. This is the main reason why people are encouraged to cooperate with the process of social service that are provided to them by the NGO’s as they are considered one of the most important organizations in the human community today.