Essay On Social Work And Identity

As social workers, we are faced with the incredible task of helping people-predominantly people of color-to navigate the country’s systems in search for better opportunities and resources in an attempt to improve their lives. Not only do we have to take into account the individual’s past experiences and current skills and concerns but most importantly we have to be able to see each individual as an intricate puzzle which contains many different pieces that have all come together to form what that person is today. One of the most crucial factors that we must take into account is the person’s identity, how the person relates to that identity within several different contexts and how this individual has either succeeded or failed to access necessary resources in their community. In addition to that, we must know what types of experiences this individual has had in the past to identify strengths and weaknesses whereby we, as social workers, can use to help the individual accomplish their set goals. …show more content…
One of the most difficult tasks faced by social workers today is to identify how people of color are negatively affected by different types of …show more content…
Going deeper to identify ways in which organizational norms privilege some and marginalize others helps to define a new organizational culture (Griffith et al., 2007), but still falls short of addressing policy. Engaging in policy advocacy in the organizational context (Mosely, 2013) creates the potential for broad systemic change. Realizing this potential requires a movement that crosses institutional contexts to develop and nurture antiracist social workers at every phase of career