My desire to become a social worker began as a young middle school student when I learned about the suffering of children by abusive adults through a non-fiction story we read in class. At that time, I just wanted to “rescue” the children. Since then I have matured through serving families and children within the child welfare system and my mission has broadened.
I have worked in various childcare programs in several different capacities and the majority of my client base has been African American. In my experience I have noticed that these clients were overwhelmingly poor, young, single parent women with a lack of emotional and financial support as well as parenting skills. As a product of a single parent household, I found this to be very unsettling. Fortunately, I was often able establish a strong bond with my clients because they felt I could relate to them. As a result, I was able to reach them in way that several of my coworkers could not. After completing the MSW program, my goal is to create a program targeting low-income African-Americans who are parents of children between the ages of 0-5 with services providing educational classes and professional support to lessen the likely hood of child abuse or neglect in their families.
Data shows that the majority of child fatalities and maltreatment involve children under the age of six (Child Trends, . My program will consist of nurses, parent educators, and social workers who will provide preventive classes and services such as after-delivery home visits, infant care classes, playgroups/support groups, mental health screenings, referrals, relationship/ sex ed. workshops, breastfeeding and nutritional classes. This will allow providers to build a relationship with families and get into the home before the children are school aged during this critical period when most child abuse occurs.
I worked with the U.S. Army and discovered that a similar program is provided to their military families. I observed that parents’ participation in this program gave them a support network when problems or parental stresses arose. I believe this is an essential component of my program because often single parents are forced to deal with so many obstacles on a regular basis that they feel as if they have no one to turn to for help and the children will inevitably suffer because of this. Therefore, I believe my program will help decrease the abuse and neglect that often occurs in many of these homes with small children in the African American community
It has been my experience that in many African-American communities, there is a great mistrust of social workers and other providers due to misinformation and negative family experiences with workers within the social service realm. Another mission of my program will be to restore the relationship of African-American families and social services through awareness and rebuilding trust. In order to rebuild the trust and raise awareness within the African American community, we will depend heavily on community members and leaders to educate the families of our program’s mission and services. Perhaps most importantly, all staff members and volunteers will be expected to treat families with dignity and respect.
Upon returning to school, my financial need has increased significantly. I take my studies very seriously and as a result I am only able to work part-time to ensure I meet my responsibilities as a student. In addition, I am a single woman and do not receive support from a spouse. I also come from a working class family who can give me plenty of emotional support but no financial assistance. Currently, I have exhausted all of my financial aid and resources to pay for tuition and boarding. This scholarship will help me greatly with paying the cost of my school books and supplies.
As I mentioned earlier I find it easy to relate to the single parent clients that we often encounter in our social work. Much like them, I work very hard to make a way for myself, and a helping hand would be invaluable to me and the goals that I seek to accomplish.