Allison May's BSW Portfolio

Competency 3: Advance Human Rights and Social, Economic, and Environmental Justice

Social workers understand that every person regardless of position in society has fundamental human rights such as freedom, safety, privacy, an adequate standard of living, health care, and education. Social workers understand the global interconnections of oppression and human rights violations, and are knowledgeable about theories of human need and social justice and strategies to promote social and economic justice and human rights. Social workers understand strategies designed to eliminate oppressive structural barriers to ensure that social goods, rights, and responsibilities are distributed equitably and that civil, political, environmental, economic, social, and cultural human rights are protected. Social workers:

apply their understanding of social, economic, and environmental justice to advocate for human rights at the individual and system levels; and
engage in practices that advance social, economic, and environmental justice.

Introduction: Competency 3 calls on social workers to increase their knowledge, understanding, and advocacy towards injustices and threat to human rights. As developing and future social workers, we should challenge, question, and advocate for change regarding policies that are created to threaten justice and perpetuate existing injustices. There are a multitude of social, environmental, and economical injustices faced by those we are preparing to serve as developing professionals. Throughout the BSW program at Grand Valley, I had a chance to exercise this competency on both a micro and macro level. The first artifact I chose to showcase is a collection of pictures from a Women's March I participated in during the Fall of 2021. The second artifact I chose is a community outreach project a group of my peers and I conducted regarding the social issue of childhood food insecurity.

This artifact is a collection of pictures from a women's march titled MI Body MI Choice, I attended in October 2021. This march was organized in various cities throughout the country in leu of Texas decision to move towards banning abortions. This is advocating for social justice in action. Peaceful protesting is a right granted by the Constitution and something I chose to exercise based on my beliefs and values. As a woman, feminist, and developing social worker, I was advocating for those who identify as women, those who will in the future identify as women, and myself to have bodily autonomy and access to safe and legal abortions amongst other sexual health services. It is important to educate yourself and that is what I engaged in while participating in advocacy as well. While this seemed to be an issue only Texas was impacted with, a greater threat came when the supreme court was deciding to in the near future reevaluate Roe v. Wade. If Roe v. Wade gets overturned, there will be a law reinstated in Michigan from 1913 banning abortion access. Competency 3 called on me as a developing social worker to research and question the complexities of human rights and social issues present around me.

While completing Generalist Practice I, our class explored the social issue of food insecurity during childhood. There were various projects and assignments guiding us to explore the scope of this social issue and how it is being addressed in West Michigan. My peers and I conducted several interviews alongside research. To combine all the work, research, and interviewing conducted during the semester, our final project was to find a way to engage the community and educate individuals regarding childhood food insecurity. A group of my peers and I decided to create a Facebook community outreach event. Throughout the event we shared information via videos, articles, and other engaging formats to display the breadth of knowledge we learned throughout the semester. In addition, we partnered with a West Michigan organization, Kids' Food Basket. While educating individuals on the broader topic of childhood food insecurity, we educated individuals about Kids' Food Basket and the work they do. My group members and I were fortunate enough to raise close to $1000 for Kids' Food Basket. While taking the lead on this project, I was able to combine all the information my group members and I researched and gained through interviews to produce an interactive engagement towards advocacy. Our goal was to educate individuals regarding the social issue of childhood food insecurity and financially advocate for the continuation of the work engaged in by Kids' Food Basket.

Conclusion: While reflecting on the time I have spent completing my BSW, there are various ways in which my professors and experiences have guided me towards understanding and applying competency 3 to my professional development. Showcasing these 2 artifacts above shed light on the statement, "Social workers understand that every person regardless of position in society has fundamental human rights such as freedom, safety, privacy, an adequate standard of living, health care, and education." Through artifact 1, I was able to recognize and advocate for individuals right to "adequate health care". While abortion has come to be a great debate and politically and religiously driven conversation, at the end of the day, abortions will continue whether they are legal or not. Having a strong passion for mental health, I want to continue expanding my competency and continuing to advocate towards the destigmatization of mental health. Artifact 2 displayed myself as a developing professional spreading awareness and knowledge towards the fact that individuals, even children, are not provided an "adequate standard of living". Food, water, shelter are some of the basic necessities individuals should be granted as basic human rights, however, this is not the case. Continuing to expand on my competency towards advancing human rights and social, economic, and environmental justice, I will continue to educate myself towards disparities my future client populations are experiencing and advocating in their best interest towards improvement.