I feel the historically religious and charitable framework of social work has definitely perpetuated a savior complex within the profession. I think there are a few different ways to dismantle this system and moves towards a more collaborative system of social work. I think It would be helpful to keep social work and religion separate in all of the cases we are able to as well as having social work not be a charitable thing and instead being a collaborative effort to improve people’s lives and the community as a whole. By separating social work from churches and Charites, we can better make it accessible to a wider range of the population. Some may feel uncomfortable accepting charity, while other will not want to accept assistance from a church, especially one that they are not a part of.
Early pioneers may have thought that they had good intentions, but many of them missed the mark on intersectionality. Many did not understand for feminism to succeed, other forms of oppression need to be eradicated as well, such as racism and classism. Feminist approaches often times only focused on advancements for white women and wrote off all other women. Those in the social work community need to accept that racial, gender and socioeconomic inequalities play a large role in people’s lives and that we cannot ignore these differences and the roles that they play in structural and cultural inequalities. We need to use these differences to better understand and dismantle systems of oppression.
Some of the pitfalls of labeling social work as just ‘helping’ is that it writes off those that are being ‘helped’ as not having an active role in their own lives and treats them as less than the social worker working with them, as if the person is just waiting around for a social worker to come and ‘help’ them, which is not at all likely to be true. Those in need of social work know the most about their lives out of anyone and one can not just come in and ‘help’ without the person in need of social work playing an active role. While someone may need the assistance of a social worker, the social worker can not do their job without the cooperation of whoever they are assisting. Social work requires collaboration between the social worker and the person working with the social worker. We need to use collaborative language when describing social work, otherwise we become part of the problem.
I think the notion that those in poverty are just lazy or need to work more needs to be dismantled. We need to make society at large understand that often times when people are in poverty, it is because of societal and cultural structures, or because they are not trying. Forms of oppression such as racism and sexism play a large role in poverty and they must be acknowledged. Part of the problem here is that many people in power in this country were born into wealth and never had to experience the trials of poverty. We need more people in charge and in political office who understand poverty and what it is like to live through it. We need leaders who understand the contributing factors to poverty and realize it is a societal issue and not a personal issue.
Social workers could take a more revolutionary stance by protesting and petitioning the government. A big part of policy change is just spreading awareness and making sure the broader public knows about issues. I think public outrage can lead to a lot of policy change. By educating the public on problems or obstacles within social work, we can make the public better able to change the systems of oppression that can create and reinforce these obstacles. We could elect social workers to pollical office, so they can influence and make changes from inside of the system rather than trying to change the system from the outside.
A lot of people are really only focused on their own day to day lives and thus do not have very much of an understanding of social work and how it works. Even me, as someone who has an interest in social work, I feel I am only beginning to barely touch the surface of what I should know and all that there is for me to learn. By everyone understanding social work, we can create a society where social work is finally valued as highly as it should be. We need to educate the public on how beneficial social workers can be to different communities and areas of life, so we can implement social work in a wide array of new ways. Social work is a very important, but a very vague field. It spans so many different subjects it is almost impossible to boil it down to one simple definition.
Mindy Haley
I appreciate your perspectives within your blog, but I would like to offer a challenge about your proposed separation of Church and Social Work. I believe it would be disadvantageous to approach any type of group (religious, political, private, etc.) and tell them they are not allowed to provide social services. I am not convinced that this is exactly what you were proposing, but it is an extreme that I thought was worth addressing.
I will gladly agree that churches have not always advocated for social policies that are in line with my personal values, or indeed in line with accepted medical and scientific practices for human health, but they still have the ability to reach individuals and provide important services. Faith can be irreplaceable to some as a means of connecting with something outside themselves, finding an accepting community that welcomes them, or giving them a place to belong.
I do agree that the “Savior Complex” is problematic and alienating in and of itself. People do not like to feel as though they are a burden, or they require charity. I will personally identify as someone who would shy away from religious-based services, but I have to recognize that not everyone feels the same as I do.
A counter-proposal I might suggest for our new radical way of thinking, is perhaps we could enact taxation on churches, requiring them to contribute toward government spending on social services. This may serve as a measure to balance the scales and create avenues to support individuals that churches may alienate.
Thank you for reminding us that poverty is not a failure of morality. I was surprised to read that this mentality has been around for so long when it absolutely should not persist. I also like your idea that social workers should hold more political office.
Abbigale Wheeler
Hey Mindy, I think that in some cases religion can be combined with social work, as I know religion means a lot to some people, but I think the large majority of social work organizations should remain secular. I do think that taxing churches is a good idea to make sure churches are not discriminating against certain groups of people.
Tesha Hudson
Hi Abbigale,
I value the points you made throughout your blog. I sometimes think that the word “charity” has a negative connotation because people view it as entitlement. However, in my home town majority of the human service agencies are ran through a program called Catholic Charities. According to their website, they provide resources to anyone that may need it. However, I do agree that there are many instances that benefit from having a separation from religion.
I really appreciate your point about having individuals in office that were not just simply born into it, but rather walked the same road as the people they are representing.
Rayanne Alick
Hey Abbigale. There was one paragraph in particular that really stood out to me because of what I am currently experiencing. I agree with you that I, the social worker, will need consistent communication and collaboration with the client that needs assistance. The client would need to be self motivated to be apart of the program and services which I am providing. It is extremely hard attempting to assist a client who does not have the self motivation and determination to do what needs to be done in order to be successful. My manager and coworkers had have to explain to me that there is only so much we can do to help our clientele. A rhetorical statement that has always stuck with me since I first started in this field is when one coworker had mentioned, we can provide water for them to drink, but we cannot make them drink it.
You’ve mentioned a lot of great points but personally that is one that stuck out the most so I just wanted to share.
Thank you for sharing!
Dilyn Martin
Hey Abbigale, I agree with how there should be collaboration between social workers and the person they are helping. However, some people aren’t people who reach out for help unless they believe that getting help is needed in life. Social workers and the people they are helping should be on the same ‘level’, meaning that the person needing help is in agreement with whatever help the social worker is providing. A statement I hear all the time about people needing help is “you cannot give people help if they are not asking for help”.
Poverty is one of the biggest issues in our nation today and it needs to be heavily addressed. I also agree with politicians experiencing poverty before they start in politics. With society changing, poverty is getting worse. There definitely needs to be a societal change in how politicians address or talk about poverty.
Kenese Faamu
Hi Abbigale, poverty is definitely one of the major issues in our nation today. You mentioned that we need leaders who understand what it’s like to go through poverty, I couldn’t agree with you more. I do believe poverty is a societal issue as you said, and it is a problem that needs to be addressed. With the right leaders and social workers, I believe we can overcome this problem. You also had me at “make changes from inside the system rather than trying to change the system from the outside”. Reading your blog was enjoyable, thanks for sharing.
Devin Gittlein
While I agree with the overall separation between religion and social work, even though I am not a spiritual person, I don’t think it should be wholly excluded. Even in my short lifetime, I have come across many coworkers, family members, and family friends who have only been able to improve their lives and were able to recover from substance abuse issues because of someone pointing them in the direction of faith. I do, however, think that if the wrong person is pressured too much into relying on religion, it can be detrimental to their recovery.
Poverty definitely is a societal fault and I believe social workers can help implement small scale solutions such as things like homeless shelters as well as large scale solutions like addressing policy change. There is so much to address that it takes a lot of effort from a lot of people, but those dedicated to their work can make a huge difference.