Power

"Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral"

I wanted to share this quote that I saw on a friend's Facebook page. I stared at it for a long time because it pretty much sums up the conflict I have with working in some mainstream social work organizations. Does enforcing (often) unfair government policy equate with siding with the powerful? Especially if you are washing your hands of it by not advocating for the service users you are supposed to be helping?

I'm reading a book at the moment called "Doing Anti-Oppressive Practice: Building Transformative Politicized Social Work". It goes through multiple examples of front-line social workers who politicize their everyday work. In other words, they make sure that they are not just enforcing policies but truly helping service users (term used instead of client or patient which infer that they are either buying a service or that they are medically ill). The social worker becomes more of a mentor/guide than an enforcer of policies. Politicizing social work also means understanding the political, social and economic forces that shape the lives of the service users (ex: forces and power relations that make it very difficult to get out of intergenerational poverty). It also means that there is no such thing as neutrality: everything is political.

Social workers who use anti-oppressive techniques often work for an agency or organization that is either flexible (i.e. allows their employees flexibility in the way they work) or that is fully organized around this principal. The book gives the example of social workers at a feminist agency in Canada who practice anti-oppressive work by doing the following:

1. Helping service users navigate the social systems (ex: providing them with options and information, advocating on the behalf of service users BUT also helping them learn to advocate for themselves)

2. Empowerment (ex: a longer term goal that involves helping the service users develop the strength and skills they need to advocate for themselves)

3. Educating other service providers (ex: to bring about collective change)

4. Educating service users (ex: challenge service users' restrictive role behaviours; for example, a women thinking it is <natural> to be oppressed by men)

5. Engaging authentically (creating safe spaces for service users, being warm, being welcoming). I love this one, I really think this is key. Its about building a relationship of trust. And truly caring.

Baines, Donna (2007). Doing Anti-Oppressive Practice: Building Transformative Politicized Social Work, Fernwood, Canada, p.31-49.

Now in the chapter they pose an interesting question: Is this really anti-oppressive social work (as in a special type of social work) or is this just what social work is supposed to be like? I still haven't found an answer to that one. But I'm leaning towards the idea that all social work should be like this.

This is only ONE small example amoung many in this book (and amoung many other agencies I assume) that are not siding with the powerful (i.e. not oppressing the users). And it doesn't seem that difficult or idealistic either. What I love about this book is that it presents REAL examples, not theories. I think we should have read this book during our Masters. In fact, I bought it because in class, the discussion often turned to this question: how do we, as social workers, create anti-oppressive practice? And teachers, understandably, were never able to answer in a satisfactory way (it is a difficult question). Well this book provides, as far as I can tell, part of the answer.

Now this is what I want to do as a career. I don't want to simply follow rules and blindly enforce them, not in the long run anyhow. I don't want to become disillusioned from my beliefs that living in a fair-er society is not only better for everyone (economically and socially) but also brings us back to our humanity. And I definitely don't want to become non-empathetic to the difficulties many people face. However, one step at a time; first, I need to know what I'm up against and continue to question my own beliefs by being wholeheartedly open minded.