Step1-Know Where You Are in Your Life
Tabitha’s situation is difficult. Her surroundings have changed quite a few times in a very short period. Tabitha lives in a residential facility away from her native land and family. She is also not with family which can make her s She’s living in a residential facility instead of with her family. Tabitha has some spirituality, but I am unsure of the extent of her spiritual beliefs. Tabitha is working which is a part of American Culture but working could also be a part of the culture in Trinidad as well. Tabitha is also a teenager, and teenagers go through changes in general, so that on top of what she is experiencing can make this a big challenge. She is in a school and looking to make a change in schools for the sake of better education. Reading is a strength that Tabitha has so I plan to use that as a way to help her make the best of her situation as a social worker. “The metaphor connecting the building blocks conjures up a construction process of identifying and placing together the essential elements of edifice” (Diller & Lum, 2017).
I need to start dialogue with Tabitha and see where she is first, that is the first step to helping her. Then do a full biopsychosocial assessment on her to see where her mental health is, her well-being and how she is functioning in her current community. Starting this dialogue with positivity is essential in the empowering process, what I have found is that the strength based prospective works best in helping facilitate the positive dialogue. Figure out who her support system is her mind and see how to incorporate them. “The small circles of love we have managed to form in our individual lives represent a concrete realistic reminder that beloved community is not a dream, that it already exist for those of us who have done the work of educating ourselves for critical consciousness” (Lee, J. A 1995). I think figuring out a way to see that education is a tool that she can use as a way improve herself, her education and life as a whole by using the experience making it the best, especially since she likes to read.
My positionality is I’m an African American female. I’m a mother, a full-time employee, and a student trying to become a new social worker. I will advantage of every opportunity to learn more about different cultures to become more culturally competent I can use this opportunity to help me with that as well, in learning about Tabitha and her Caribbean culture as well as learning how Americanized she is.
My positionality intersects with Tabitha’s, because we both are women, additionally we are also minority females and Tabitha and I are both students. Tabitha and I both have had some unique family situations and challenges. We also share the skill of working while in school and I can use this to connect with her as well. Since I am aware of how my past family challenges have impacted my life then and how currently in the choices I make, I will see if Tabitha can relate her family functions to know how it affects her internally or externally.
Step-2 Working Through the Dilemma of Americanization
I am very Americanized as I was born in America and that is what I am accustomed to, so I would explain that to Tabitha in our initial introduction. This does a few things it allows Tabitha to know you read a little bit about her and it allows her to be the teacher and leader in a sense. It is also empowering her. I would see what Tabitha thinks about being multicultural and work from there, plan with her to see where she is and where she wants to be. America is a huge melting pot and there are many cultures within America. Although, I am considered Americanized there are many things I am still learning in the American culture. I learned a different definition of family from my family here to my military family and the comradery. They are both families but very different in their respective environments. We know that states even have some differences in American culture. Example southern states food are preparation is different than here in Ohio and still have the same name but totally different tastes. The NASW Standards for Cultural Competence define culture as the process by which individuals and systems respond respectfully and effectively to people of all cultures, languages, classes, races, ethnic backgrounds, religions, another diversity factors in a manner that recognizes, affirms, and values the worth of individuals, families, and communities and protects and preserves the dignity of each (NASW, 2000b, p. 61).
People leave their countries of origin for several different reasons. We really don’t know what those reasons are unless we ask. The only thing we know that is constant is that everyone leaves for their own reason. It is extremely hard to travel to another country and try to get used to some of the customs that are different than how you have lived your life or raised to live your life. This has to be a huge learning curve in the terms, we can’t force anyone to become Americanized it should be a choice of a person if that is the route that they want to take and we as practioners to help educate an guide them. This can actually become a partnership as they teach us about their culture so we learn the basic steps on how to communicate and be respectful in order to work towards a common goal.
Step 3 – Explore Your Family Culture
My ethnic family background is not something I can explore and I’m not sure If will be able to, but my foster mom let me explore her ethnic background. She has my grandma who is mixed with a African American mom and a Caucasian father, and so grandma is mixed but my mom has some of that in her blood line she doesn’t go back for more generations than that because that is the immediate family she grew up with. My foster mom explained what she knows about my biological mom and dad from what social workers told her. They were both African American and had some challenges raising my large biological family as I have 12 siblings. My foster mom was born here in Cleveland, Ohio and so was I. I am completely Americanized, because I was born into American culture, and learned this way of life. I wasn’t aware of many American values and traditions at an early age, like I wasn’t really taught about other cultures until I went to some of my friends’ houses a child and heard them speaking another language and asked questions. Most of the people in my foster family skin tone range from very light skin to fair skin, none of them are really dark at all but all are African American..
When I was eight years old I went to camp and I was terrified because there were so many kids of all ethnicities and I wasn’t really taught what was going to happen before I got there, But the kids were predominately white an I knew we drove a while to get there as I remember looking out the window and feeling like the cars were whizzing by. But that was my first experience with diverse groups really. Then in middle school again. The stereotype I have about Asians is that they don’t really gain wait and they have a high metabolism, so everyone is fat to them. I’ve been stereotyped as an African American woman, and my leadership abilities as a woman then as a person of color. I am often asked about my educational background. I am also stereotyped I think because of my name, I’ve noticed a lot of Caucasian people will say ooh your Americus, and in my mind I’m like what did you expect me to be. Increasing cultural awareness is particularly important for me as I want to work with veterans and their families, while we are our family in uniform many families operate differently at home. I want to be the beset social worker I can be and the way to be the best social worker I can is to be culturally competent an aware.
Step 4 – Practice Cultural Other Awareness (CAI)
I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, and I had friends from different nationalities even though the area where I grew up in was mostly African American and Puerto Rican. We all played together, and it wasn’t a big deal at that time especially as younger kids. As a teenager I dated different nationalities because we weren’t really taught there was a difference in color until we were older, so as usual I was already jaded, and I had already had my opinions about race. Race at that time didn’t matter to me as it still doesn’t. When we entered middle school then color became a huge deal it seemed with a mix of kids and history being explained in detail. As I grew up and listened to my elders I would here negative comments made about race between them to each other, but when it came to explaining to us the children I remember my mom and grandma would say “Your are just like everyone else, color is just that color, your equally as smart and there is no difference but the color of your skin and where your growing up”. my impression from childhood about my own race, African Americans has changed because I have grown as a person and learned a lot about my race and ancestry and my overall history. My impression of Latino Americans, Asian Americans, and First Nations People intrigued me, and I continuously want to learn more every chance I get.
As an adult I lived in several different countries, and engaged with several different ethnicities but Cleveland, Ohio has always been home. I have attended college from Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan which helped me to learn the importance of becoming culturally competent. When I returned home from these deployments, I attended Cuyahoga Community I College, then Cleveland State University. This past may I earned my bachelor’s degree in social work. As a young adult my close friends were of all ethnicities and in my social work education they have all taught me something special and educated me more than I can ever imagine about the differences in cultures. My romantic relationships as an adult I preferred predominately Caucasian males because I felt there was a difference in how they treated me verses African American men.
I currently live in Medina, Ohio in a predominantly white community and I use to feel like there was a stigmatism like my neighbors where stereotyping me but as soon as I changed my way of thinking I could enjoy my environment and my home. My present employer is the VA Hospital and the majority of my co-workers are predominately Caucasian even though it is a urban impoverished neighborhood. Throughout my life I have been expose to diversity. I grew up in the foster care system where I lived in different cities in the greater Cleveland area and then I traveled the world with the military so I can relate to Tabitha in a sense.
Step 5 – Construct a Client-Worker Intersectionality
Tabitha and I share some similarities, such as minority women, were leaders and have unique family situations, We both don’t have a lot of income and it puts in a different social class. this is also known as intersectionality (Diller & Lum, 2017). Just like Tabitha I am working and going to school. While her grandmother was her support system my foster mom was mine.
Step 6 – Write Your Own Cultural Biography
I was born March 7, 1983 in Cleveland, Ohio. Cleveland has always been a large city with a population of over 350, 000 people. My family and our ethnic group are African American. I lived with my biological mom for a short period of time until I went in to the foster care system. I don’t know the logistics as why I ended up in the foster care system, but it has made me who I am today. My biological father made a few attempts to see me as a child and then as an adult. When I was away at basic combat training for the Army he passed away. I was raised by my foster mother until the age of 12 then she passed, and I went to live with another foster family who still look at me as a part of their family today. They have never made me feel different or ostracized and taught me what is like to have a real family and show love. Me and one of my foster’s sisters lived with my foster mom who was also African American on the west side of Cleveland and it was predominantly mixed with African American and Puerto Ricans. My mom worked for TRW and JO-ANN fabrics, so she worked two jobs. She worked a day shift and a third shift job when my aunt or our neighbor could watch me and my sisters. My foster mom was a single parent who always made things happen if when she didn’t have money, she took us places and showed us things that were diverse. We went to a lot of cultural fairs and tried different foods, she wanted to make sure we were exposed to everything and she also tried to teach me some traditions her family had set forth. I find these a little hard to maintain but love that she includes me enough to make me know that I am loved.
I grew up on the west side of Cleveland and it was very diverse with Puerto Ricans but there weren’t any whites really. Since I hadn’t had many encounters with white people then and wasn’t really taught about racism until I was older, I didn’t know there was a difference in interactions or how lived, dressed or things like that. There were students and teachers of many races in school but again I didn’t think about it that much as it wasn’t made a big deal.
Step 7 – Engage the Client Using Self Dialogue
I would explain a little about myself and my practice as social worker to open on the self-dialogue and build trust. Letting her know that I am here to help and invite Tabitha to tell me a little about herself and history. And see what she would like to work on, what is the most important for her and incorporate that into the plan as I try to understand all that I need to about her, her family and her culture. I would concentrate on what happened with family back home and if she thinks it could have been handled differently. I would see if Tabitha would like to explore the option of mending any of the family relationships and see which ones and work on those. with her mother. I would explain to Tabitha that a lot of families have hardships and they work on them so this is normal and its ok and that we can work as team to see if we can resolve it. See what Tabitha’s thoughts are about staying here in the states or returning home and why?
I would then explore Tabitha’s spirituality and the comfort her grandma brings in leading the family. I would see what things are similar here to the way things were at home and see how that makes her feel. I would see if we could develop a list to give us things she would like to work on and see if can draw an ecomap of how to get there. “While the genogram reveals the internal dynamics and relationships are represented on an ecomap”(Collins, D., Jordan, C., & Coleman, H. (2010)
I would point out to Tabitha that the things we go through in life both good and bad determine the factors in which we currently live life possible or even what angles we view things in life from. I would let her know that I would like to hear a few positive and negative experiences she has had in life and why she viewed them as such. This would allow us to understand reasoning behind the decision-making process. I would then challenge Tabitha to see if there are ways that the situation could have been handled differently, if so how? then ask her if there was anything that couldn’t been done differently to make it a more positive or even educational experience for her. I would ask her if she was faced with a similar situation would she handle it differently. I would also challenge her to write down in a journal every day a word to convey in image of who she is a person, and every day reflect on the day before why she choose that word and how it relates to her. I would help her to correlate how these then try to experiences contributed to her over all thinking process, and the way she chooses to see things after our talk. This would allow us both to see if there is something we could have said or learned about Tabitha that would help us engage her mind in change. This can relate to the behaviorist theory.
The most important thing I believe that I can share with Tabitha is that I have had challenges in my life as well, and that I have made some mistakes along the way. I’d express to her that I grew up in the foster system and that I had to learn a lot of things at a young age. There was a time in life that I wanted to meet my biological mom and tell her that all the things I had experienced or went through was her fault and ask her why I was in foster care. What happened in her life to disregard her children? What things happened in her life that led her to make the decisions that she made. Then after talking with several professionals and learning that life isn’t easy and that in order for me to have peace I would need to move on from this hatred and see how I can make my life better for me and my son. Counseling, real friendship and talking gave me avenues to heal and learn as a person and a social worker. I was forced to grow up fast without the support of my family, but I am better person because if it. I would say Tabitha that consider today the first day of the rest of her life and to start making better choices from here on out. To realize she is going to make some mistakes along the way, but she has to learn from them, use them as tools and move forward. Also, I would tell Tabitha that life has value, worth, and importance. that one’s life is characterized by predictability and routine. Let her know I am here to help her figure out what value it has for her.
References
- Collins, D., Jordan, C., & Coleman, H. (2010). An introduction to family social work. Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole, Cengage Learning.
- Diller, J., Lum, D. & Tsagarias (2017). Disparities, Diversity, and Inclusion (4th ed., pp. 170& 273).
- Lee, J. A. (1995). Empowerment approach to social work practice: Instructors manual. New York: Columbia University Press.
- The National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Code of … (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.uaf.edu/socwork/student-information/checklist/(D)-NASW-Code-of-Ethics.pdf
