An interview between myself and Leanne Knowles was conducted. Leanne is a Community welfare worker and Coordinator of an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Corporation known as Warringu.
An interview was arranged through a mutual friend of Leanne. It was suggested that I interview Leanne as it would be good to base my studies around Warringu. An interview was conducted on Tuesday 8/9/15 at the Woree McDonald’s at around 12 noon. Lecture notes and reading were the main sources of information I used to base my questions around as well as general interest.
It was particularly intriguing interviewing Leanne coming from a males perspective. Coming into the interview I didn’t understand the nature of the organisation and I was surprised by how …show more content…
They very much run off a community based structure, meaning that they are bottom up and their service users and clients are heavily involved in decision making (Gair, 2015, p.5). Directly from Leanne when asked about the structure of Warringu she quotes; “I believe that hierarchical structures in organisations can prove to be the least useful when thinking about work with our residents and with the community. I like to think there is a flat structure to our organisation with the community members being central, the board members close to that – like in a systems approach” (L. Knowles, personal communication, September 8th, …show more content…
The word integrity is understood to refer to little more than the understanding of staying true to oneself (Jones, 2000, p. 366). Many of the social workers, from what I gathered from Leanne, strive for the best for their resident’s needs. “We are amazed at the level of disadvantage of the families that we experience” (L. Knowles, personal communication, September 8th, 2015). Levels of debt, education levels and the level of dependence on the government for Welfare are challenges which residents at Warringu are often struggling