Values We Should All Share

There are two strong values that I have which I feel should be inherent in everyone of this world, this country, and most importantly, in the social work field. My purpose of writing this blog is to bring awareness to you so these values can be practiced. I believe that altruism and self awareness are within us all if we pay attention.

I was fortunate enough to be raised by two loving parents who taught me to watch out for and take care of others. Growing up in the United States though and especially in my lifetime, we have been schooled to compete against each other and to not trust strangers. I believe that this has driven our society to a point where we avoid eye contact and greetings when passing by each other in public.

When I visited Cambodia this past winter, there was something magical present which I could not identify until I was home and had some time to reflect on the experience. I now can label this magic as altruism. Altruism is the unselfish regard for the welfare of others. Before going to Cambodia I only planned on an in-n-out mission to explore the Angkor Temple Ruins as many readings cautioned one’s safety. Gee, did this ring untrue! Every single person that I caught eyes with, lit up with the biggest smiles I have ever seen. No matter where you were, if you looked puzzled or scared, the Khmer people would instantly offer you comfort and their assistance. Everyone gave to one another, whether it be rides, food, or money without any question. The ability to share with everyone radiates peace and is quite contagious. Altruism is a value that we should all have as we are all beings that share the same planet.

The second value that I would like to discuss is self awareness. Self awareness is a person's awareness of self with regard to position, time, place, and personal relationships. This is of upmost importance when interacting with others, collaborating with others, and leading others. This is also something that I feel I have a solid grasp of and feel that everyone else should easily grasp as well. However, I have found this not to be so true. Over the past few years, I have been in a relationship, had friendships, and interacted with others who do not listen to the other half of the conversation. Many of these people push their agenda, pause only to think about what they are going to say next, and are oblivious to the fact that these behaviors are causing people to tune them out. Rather than get frustrated at this selfishness, I analyze these behaviors and realize that it is a lack of self awareness that is at the root of the people who share this mentality. I mean not to be rude toward anyone, I would just like to bring attention toward practicing self awareness.


If everyone shared a sense of self awareness and altruism, the world would become a peaceful planet!

Community Organizing: Applying Theory to Practice

Throughout the year, we have been learning methods to apply toward community practice. Our professor has heavily influenced the use of technology to aid us in community gathering and spreading our ideas to a larger audience. In a previous blog, I had mentioned how I had hesitated to start blogging and some of my class was resistant to blogging and creating a youtube video. But, we have learned the importance and have realized the advantage of using these tools toward reaching a larger audience. Like everything in life, it is the experience and application of knowledge that we learn the most from. After reviewing the past two months of my field experience, I realized that I have been applying the knowledge from my community class to the field.

This year, my field experience has been focused on the Regional Center’s population with autism. April was Autism Awareness month and my team had the task of creating special events for the different age groups of our consumers. After creating a list and scheduling multiple events, we had the task of “getting the word out” or creating a gathering to attend the events.

We were able to send letters out to our consumers, but we had wanted to spread the word throughout the community to reach a broader audience. The internet isn’t necessary to reach our local community, but we did decide to make use of all of our local media outlets. We researched several calendar postings available online, contacted the local newspapers, radio stations, and television station to request space to advertise for our events. Learning through class, I overcame my hesitation and was part of a Public Service Announcement that we recorded and distributed to all of our local radio stations to play throughout the month.

We successfully organized and produced gatherings at all of our events. By using our local media outlets as a tool, we were able to spread awareness and influence our people to attend. This experience in community organizing solidified the theories that we have been learning throughout the year.

Easier Ways to Success Through Collaboration

To collaborate or not to collaborate, that is the question. Or, should this ever be a question when provided the opportunity? It only makes sense to share ideas, split workloads, and assign expertise to given parts of a project in order to more easily and effectively accomplish a project. These ideas were expounded upon in a talk that Howard Rheingold gave on the website ted.com. He explains that we are coming to an age where “cooperation, collective action, and complex interdependencies” play a more important role than competition in order to achieve success. Our society has been transformed in a way to view competition as the best way to display success, however this needs to change to better accomplish the challenges that we face today. Howard explains that humans have always collaborated to accomplish feats throughout history. He quickly walked through our history and discussed our collective action along the way. He poses a great idea through explaining that we imprison ourselves, but we have the unique ability to overcome this imprisonment by banding together to create new ideas which will lead us in new directions. Please check out his talk:

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/howard_rheingold_on_collaboration.html

My first experience with success through collaboration was while working with a Wrap Around service in Pennsylvania. Here, we organized teams to aid children in overcoming their disabilities. The teams consisted of a child client, his/her family members/caregivers, a behavior specialist, a mobile therapist, a therapeutic aid, and often times, teachers and staff from his/her school. The team would meet and decide the best plan for everyone to follow for the child to have the proper supports to ensure success. This collaboration of multiple circles of supports ensured that everyone followed the same plan and provided consistent aid to the child throughout his/her day. This type of collaboration was necessary to ensure consistency throughout all of the child’s environments.

Collaboration has everything to do with community work. Like Howard Rheingold says, humans have always collaborated throughout history to accomplish large tasks and lies at the very basis in forming a community where tasks are divided amongst members in order to assemble a working system. When there are large systems to navigate, independence and competition create deterrents from the system’s ability to flow. Also, when collaboration is formed, expertise can be allocated to many different tasks to ensure higher quality work.

My learning of collaboration as a function of community work is being reinforced by several projects that I am currently involved with. One of which involves the creation of a transition book to address concerns that families of children with special needs may have as they are about to enter the regular school system. This is a product that parents have requested and the local Office of Education has formed a collaborative with members from its Special Education Department, the local Regional Center, and the local chapter of First Five. This team has also decided to invite families to provide their input towards the book as well. This is a great example of how a well rounded product can be produced by incorporating the collaboration of multiple systems’ ideas of readiness for school transition.

So, when one has the ability to cooperate with others to accomplish a given task, it should always be viewed as advantageous. As, collaboration creates an easier and more effective path to success.