We were given the opportunity to dedicate twenty hours out of our lives to give back to the community, and frankly, I was stoked. I began to ponder, “where should I spend twenty hours doing service learning?”, “who would I want to work with?”, and most importantly, “Am I able to do it?” Then, one day a guest speaker from Michigan State’s Sexual Assault Program came to educate us on the program, all of the possibilities simultaneously rushed to my head. I immediately jumped at the opportunity. After class, I nervously picked up the phone, dialed Michigan State’s Sexual Assault Program’s office, and began asking about any available volunteer opportunities. During the phone call, I was informed of the volunteer requirements. These requirements …show more content…
First, a social worker must be well culturally competent. This means that it is critical for a social worker to have the system’s perspective as their right-hand man or woman. When I am on the hotline, I have the possibility of working with any population. This means that the person on the other line can be white, black, hispanic, asian, gay, bisexual, and etc. In fact, even though most of the conversations I’ll have will fall under sexual assaults/abuse, the context of every person I interact with will be different. One person might have a financial dependence on their perpetrator, while another person may have children with their perpetrator. Every story has divergent twists and complexities, which what makes the system’s perspective so vital. A social worker must take into account of their client, or in this case survivor, different systems. Do they have micro systems such as kids, family, friends. Or, do they don’t have any micro systems and just meso systems that include a religious community. It differs for every client, which what makes the field somewhat mentally and emotionally exhausted. As a result, social workers must also practice self care. If I am constantly holding a space for my survivors and not holding any space for myself to bathe, breathe, relax, and reflect, I won’t be able to hold those spaces effectively. It is essential that a social worker sees to their needs first before others, because if they are unable to function, how are they supposed to allow others to even begin healing healthily? It’s a sense of balance of the spectrum between the social worker and the