One of the Best Days of My Life

As I have stated numerous times before in this blog, I am at a fork in the road in my life. One path leads to social work, and the other leads to law. This internship has afforded me various opportunities to see social justice enacted in different ways. I have seen the legal side of abuse and neglect cases, and I longed to see the social work side. Fortunately for me, I was able to ride along with a group of three, young social workers to their home visits. The social workers are in the Office of Youth Division, which deals with teenagers between the ages of sixteen and twenty, whose goals are Alternative Planned Permanent Living Arrangements (APPLA) and who are aging out of the system. They ensure services have been set in place that will help these young adults live life after the system.

The visits would go like this (generally) – we would walk in, greet the client, joke around, and then ask what they have been up to, whether they have done what the social workers last asked of them, and whether they are following court orders. I met seven teens who were polite and ranged from ecstatic to see the social workers (one girl asked if she could come along!) to indifferent (one boy texted on his phone as the social worker spoke to him). One teen even asked if I would become his social worker (because his current social worker is moving to England soon).

It does not sound like much, but as I watched these women interact with their clients, I became enthralled by their work. They had developed a sort of friendship with the clients, not just a “you’re-the-client-I’m-your-social-worker” relationship. Each woman worked well with the clients and listened to what they had to say before telling them what needed to be done; they respected each person as a person. They celebrated in their clients’ successes and scolded clients for failures. They joked with each client, and a few were invited back to the office for the next day. Each social worker connected on a level with their client because, in my opinion, they were young at heart and could find a nexus to relate to their clients. These broad explanations do not do these women justice; they are the epitome of the best social workers.

They have influenced my decisions on the near future, and for the time being, I have decided to pursue a career within the social work field.