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Social Justice
Social work is a practical profession aimed at helping people address
their problems and matching them with the resources they need to
lead healthy and productive lives.
Beneath this practicality lies a strong value system that can be
summarized in two words: social justice. Social justice is the view
that everyone deserves equal economic, political and social rights
and opportunities. Social workers aim to open the doors of access
and opportunity for everyone, particularly those in greatest need.
A brief glance at the many roles of social workers shows how this
value system underscores everything they do. With homeless clients,
for example, social workers make sure their clients have access to
food stamps and health care. The same is true for elderly clients:
Social workers may work to protect them from financial abuse or to
ensure that they are receiving the health and financial benefits
that are rightfully theirs.
Social workers also apply social-justice principles to structural
problems in
the social service agencies in which they work. Armed with the long-term goal
of empowering their clients, they use knowledge of existing legal principles
and organizational structure to suggest changes to protect their clients, who
are often powerless and underserved. For example, social workers may learn
organizational ethics to ensure that clients are treated respectfully by staff
or they may examine the organization’s policies on personal client information
to make sure it is held in confidence.
Often, social workers bring social justice concepts into the wider
social and political arena. Following the September 11, 2001, attacks
in New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington an international group
of social workers issued statements condemning terrorism but calling
for examination of possible underlying causes. In particular, the
statements suggested that terrorism may be fueled in part by global
practices that led to poverty and rage among millions of Middle Eastern
citizens.
Indeed, from the beginning of their profession, social workers have
been involved in “connecting the dots” between peace
and social justice. According to social work philosophy … Peace
is not possible where there are gross inequalities of money and power,
whether between workers and managers, nations and nations or men
and women.
http://www.socialworkers.org/resources/abstracts/abstracts/peace.asp
http://www.helpstartshere.org/professional_standards.html
References:
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- Flynn, J.P. (1995). Social Justice in Social Agencies. In R.L. Edwards
(Ed-in-Chief), Encyclopedia of Social Work
(19th ed., Vol. 1, pp. 95-100). Washington, D.C.: NASW Press.
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- Gibelman, M. (1995). What Social Workers Do (4th ed.).
Washington, DC. NASW Press.
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- Van Soest, D. (1995). Peace and Social Justice. In R.L. Edwards
(Ed.-in-Chief), Encyclopedia of social work
(19th ed., Vol. 1, pp. 95-100). Washington, D.C.: NASW Press.
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- The world crisis: poverty, terror and war. (2001, March).
IFSW News, p. 3.
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