Generalist Social Work Practice II

(Google, 2018) Fresh off of a weekend-long training in Denver with AmeriCorps VISTA, NSAIE (National Society for American Indian Elderly) and dozens of other post-grad volunteers, I moved into my tiny Bangor apartment at about 90% nervous and 10% excited.  Or the opposite?  It was tough to tell, honestly.  I had no clue what to expect from my new position on Indian Island in the Penobscot Nation Elder Services Department, but I had a ton of ideas I'd compiled to assist them in building capacity while effectively engaging the elder population on the reservation (utilizing a Community-Building model), and all the enthusiasm in the world to do it.   None of it actually turned out like I had planned, but I like to think that's for the best.   Burkhard's (2014) chapter about community organizing has, unsurprisingly, brought to mind my one personal experience with community-based practice to date.  It was a chaotic year, to say the ...

Google, 2018 Who remembers Dr. Seuss' The Sneetches and Other Stories ?   Published in 1953, it tells the story of creatures called Sneetches, some of whom are born with the image of a star on their bellies while others are not.  In this clever poem, the Sneetches born with "stars upon thars" enjoy privilege because of their marks.  They purposefully exclude the unmarked Sneetches from social activities, consider themselves superior for having been born this way, and thus the two groups (who are much more alike than they are different) are kept separate from each other.   I couldn't help but read Ingram & Schneider's (2005) introduction about the social construction of deservedness and think about Dr. Seuss' witty way of commenting on society's perspective of difference.   My work with the homeless population through my internship at Preble Street has provided me with a fantastic lens through which to view social policy's des...