I was thinking a lot yesterday about what type of blog I should write for social work month. The first idea that came to mind was about Jane Addams- my shock over her prejudice and disdain toward Italian immigrants stemming from misunderstanding, made so evident in her book, Twenty Years at Hull House. Then I thought everybody is human, even Jane, and that probably she would feel very sorry for what she wrote about us. This notion, to utilize constructive criticism of Jane Addams to further the profession she helped to create, didn’t sit well with me for social work month. I decided to save that discussion for another blog. What I will say is that her book stressed the necessity of cultural humility more than ever to me, as my people were targeted in her book. I myself, have eaten stale bread dipped in milk for breakfast, during the summers spent in my mother’s village. I imagine that the mother Jane described, who dipped the hard bread in sweet wine for her daughter, didn’t have milk to soften the bread. I imagine that the milk was spoilt and the family didn’t have access to clean water, so she used the next best thing to soften the bread and give her daughter sustenance. Italians, don’t waste bread. Jane also forgot the Italian Renaissance and the Roman Empire, but I still have a lot of love for Jane Addams.
Then I thought I should write about self-care. We social workers talk a lot about self-care, because the majority of us aren’t very good at it. Typically, our self-care is intrinsically tied to caring for others. Burnout, indeed is a reality in social work; however, again I thought that this discussion should be reserved for another blog. That is, because the discussion is much grander than personal self-care, and should include momentum to challenge the systems that we serve. It is these systems that underpay and overburden social workers that fuel burnout. Not many social workers want a PhD; however, I did and also had to get a PhD for me to be able to adequately support myself in my profession. Just to highlight this point, the list later in this blog is so long because I was working three social work jobs simultaneously in Pittsburgh for two years. Truth be told, we don’t social work for the money, but we all need to support ourselves and our families. Therefore, self-care for social workers, must include financial and government institutions caring, valuing, and celebrating all social workers- the people we serve and the work we do. This line of thinking, finally brought me to what I should write about for social work month: the need for all people to care, value, and celebrate social workers all over the world. Honoring others has been a theme in my recent blogs, but not enough emphasis has been given to honoring social workers. Therefore, this blog is my thank you to all the social work communities I belong to, in chronological order. That way, I can celebrate the people who taught me how to be the social worker I am today. This will also start my interruption of honoring others in blogs, until the spirit within guides me to do otherwise.
Thank you to social workers across the world. May good favor shine on your endeavors, and the light you all create, outshine injustice and inequality in this world.
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