This week in our social justice class we talked about
visions and strategies for change. Social change is one thing that we all
strive for as Social Workers. Social change stirs up a lot of controversy for
some people and creates resistance in others. Social change is when a social
institution or groups of individuals change over time. However, there is always
will always be a fight for social change in our society. Living in a society
today where there are numerous social injustices, social is change is always at
the top of the latter. When there is social change there is an alternation of
an individual’s morals and values. After reading this chapter in my social
justice class, I came to realize that in order for social change to occur we as
a society should be able to understand how our power and privilege affects
others, in order to build meaningful relationships that will result in creating
social change.
Change is something that we all experience on a daily basis.
Although many of us do not cope well with change and some of us are oppose to
it, change is inevitable. With that being said, in order for change to occur we
must be willing to change ourselves and be the change that we want to see in
the world. Also we should have the willingness to learn from others, and have
the intent to listen without judging others. This is one way we can be
affective in creating social change. Also having an awareness of what is going
on in your society and in your community allows you to see what changes need to
be made to help better your society.
Trying to better a society can take a group or individual
months or even years to see or produce social change, but if we have a strong
support group behind us and a strategic plan and vision that we want to
achieve, we can effectively implement and develop social change through or
social services as Social Workers and in our society as well. This is why Marco
level Social Work is important. Working on this level as Social Workers, we are
the voice (along with the community) in helping produce social change in our
society and the voice for many of our clients.
Observation
There are many people
horning the 50th anniversary of JFK’S death in Dallas. On the news
this morning I saw a choir singing at the memorial and a pastor giving a speech
after that. I think that this memorial shows how prominent people like President
Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. can bring a society together.
It is incredible how much social change we are able to accomplish when we work together in organizations. I think that is a big draw to macro work...the fact that as an agency it is easier to create large scale changes than when working alone.
ReplyDeleteAfter hearing that social change can take up to 5 generations to see, I've become a bit disheartened. That new information also made me switch my focus to more macro level stuff, probably because I'm super impatient and speeding up change is something I'd like to do.
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ReplyDeleteGreat post! Change is just one of those things that’s hard to do even on an individual level, let alone on an institutional or societal level. I think there are a lot of reasons for this, one of the main ones being that it’s easier to keep things the way they are rather than trying change to it, especially if this change involves taking a second look at our morals, principles, and beliefs; all of which are rooted pretty deeply within our head.
I really enjoyed your comment that in order to see change we must be change. It's kind of like what Brene Brown said about needing to learn not to judge ourselves if we ever wish not to judge others.
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