Please take a moment to imagine you are a sixteen-year-old sister of two younger brothers who you are not allowed to visit. Because you are considered a “bad influence” the rules keep you apart. Rules that do not honor your family, your traditions, or your culture. Imagine yourself breaking into the home of your brother middle of the night just so you could remind them that you have not abandoned them and that you will find a way to be with them.
Imagine that you are three months from turning eighteen and knowing that your fate is to join your family on the streets. You know this because there is no one that understands that you can still love and respect your family without being like them. You know this because there is no one who accepts and welcomes your family just because they are a part of who you are. In your desperation to be taken care of you shout at your Social Worker, “Who is going to love me?”
Now try to imagine that you have been placed in so many different homes, that there are none left in your county who want you. You left those homes because you are treated like a foster child. You run away to your family who doesn’t take care of you hoping it will be different this time, but in your heart you know they won’t change… not even for you. All you think of is how alone you are, so you get drunk, smoke some weed, and try to forget. Even when you’re “on the run” you want to go to school because you want to be able to take care of yourself. Because you have a “run away warrant” the cops will come to your school and take you back to people who don’t want you anymore.
Dare you imagine that you are living in group home and you are caught sexually experimenting with someone of your same sex? Now you are no longer trusted to be left alone with your peers because you are labeled as a “perpetrator”. You are being told that what you did was unacceptable and that there must be something wrong with you. You begin to hate yourself because you think you are different from everyone else. To survive you deny it ever happened and you pretend to be someone you are not.
Can you even begin to imagine that you left your county at age seven when you were “hospitalized” for attacking a worker who was keeping for your family? At seventeen you think of an institution as your home. Instead of a family you have a group of staff telling you how to behave, when to eat and sleep, and what you do and don’t deserve. You attend a “drooler school” where some of your peers shit themselves or throw tantrums. When you ask if you can attend a regular school you are told that you are not ready. You don’t have to try in school because no one knows you well enough to expect better from you. You are only living up to their expectations, because no one has taught you to have your own.
These are voices of youths who planted seeds of inspirations in my heart to become a Social Worker who makes a difference. Their stories have touched me a way that has enlightened the depth of their emotional struggles to preserve their families, traditions, pride, and hope for their futures. These youth and their families have been a catalyst in my determination to expand my knowledge and enhance my natural abilities to help others on a person to person level. In pursuing a Masters in Social Work I will improve my ability to affect change on multiple levels of the establishment. Changes that are key in determining what services and supports are available. I have learned that understanding these voices does not always assure that my skills in finding creative solutions will be enough. Creative solutions are often adversely affected by issues of agency liability and bureaucracy which in turn profoundly affects a Social Worker’s success in meeting the needs of their clients. The needs that I have noticed the most adversely affected are as follows: education advocacy, preserving a semblance of normalcy, providing a feeling of acceptance, valuing a truant youth’s desire to work , age-appropriate mental health care, and acknowledging emotional permanence. My solution to address these needs is to nurture the individuals’ strengths while educating them in the processes of self advocacy. Once they have tasted the success of fulfilling their basic needs they are eager cultivate broader expectations of their selves and their achievements.
My professional development is particularly vital now that I have begun facilitating substantial changes and practices in my current position. I have made it my mission to ensure that Humboldt County’s Independent Living Skills Program becomes and remains a youth driven service. In earning a Masters in Social work I believe I will represent my department and clients more judiciously. While I am building a stronger foundation for my career advancement, I hope to continue serving youth on a person to person level. I have become passionate about guiding youth in using their voices to educate the policy makers, the public, and their peers in understanding and changing the foster care system.
Understanding the lives of my clients has played a large part in my decision to practice social work. It took some time for me to realize that I possess an intrinsic drive to help others who are experiencing similar challenges as my own. Struggling through school with an undiagnosed learning disability and later realizing that I had grown up in a household with a mentally ill parent gave me a depth of understanding of what it is like to live in a world of limited support and what seemed like insurmountable barriers. I believe my success in performing my social work duties has been sustained by a range of supports and experiences. These experiences include: a supportive network of coworkers and supervisors, a teaching background, a history of working in service oriented jobs, being a first generation college graduate, a Veteran’s of the Armed Forces, a Mother of young children, and a member of this community. Given my experiences and support network, I can now proudly identify my self as an ally to a diverse assemblage of peoples and communities.
In my nine years of experience as a professional Social worker I worked extensively with youth, families, and Native American peoples. I have worked with youth in just about every capacity, and I have come to understand their needs sometimes better then my own. Youth that I serve have contagious attitudes about openness, awareness, and advocacy which continuously inspires me to be more socially progressive and open minded. While assigned as a ten day investigator in the Eastern Humboldt region, I enjoyed the experience of working closely with Hoopa Human Services, The Yurok Tribe, local police, and the community. Because of my time working in Hoopa, I am honored to claim friendship with some of local residents and professionals. During this time I had the privilege of working with a particular family for over a year. Within that year I was able to develop a trusting connection which allowed me to assist the family in enrolling four of their children in their primary tribe. My drive to ensure completion of this task was seeing the pride of the youth in belonging to an extended family: Their tribe. Prior to my nine years of service as a Social Worker, I experienced opportunities which enable me to easily adapt and enjoy learning about the diverse cultures of other countries. I have traveled, lived, and worked in Korea, Panama, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and several European countries during my service in the Military.
Now that you have a picture of the Social Worker that I am and the one that I am striving to be, you should have no problem imagining yourself as sister who is now twenty-four and keeps a door open to your two brothers, even in the hard times. You are an educator of young children and an adoptive parent of those members of your family and your tribe who came into the system after you.
Without hesitation you can imagine that you have turned eighteen and that you are meeting your father’s family for the first time. Not only do they accept you as you are, but also the family you come with. Imagine that they are not afraid to welcome and love you just because you are a part of their family.
Imagine now that your Social Worker wrote a warrant that forbids you from being picked up at school, and that you check in with your Social Worker even when you are “on the run” because you know that he/she understands and cares. Imagine you are constantly reminded that you deserve to be loved, cared for, and have a safe permanent home. Imagine that you’re beginning to believe it yourself.
With pride, you can imagine that you state your sexual preference without fear or condemnation and that your allies stand up to anyone who would label you.
Imagine that at seventeen you return to your county, and a home where you are accepted as family. You learn to advocate for yourself and as a result, you attend a public high school, make the football team, and get a job. Imagine having two different people offer to adopt you even after you turn eighteen. Imagine arguing with them because they care about you and know you well enough to insist that you have higher expectations of yourself.
These are the voices of youth and their families that inspire hope and that remind me I can continue to make a difference. These are the stories of the youth who lives I would tend as I would my own children.
