STOREEZ

Citizen participation

As I was going to work in the wee hours of the morning, amidst my stupor (I'm always in that state in the morning), I noticed this sign placed on the staircase landing of my house. Apparently an irate resident had decided to take Grassroots action to resolve a problem that my wife and I had been regularly disgruntled about in our HDB home. The only difference was that this concerned individual took the extra effort to do something about it. By the way (side track a bit) not only had there been regular instances of public urination at the landing, there has even been a time where someone actually crapped on the landing (Yuck).

What are the different ways to take action in the community, for social problems such as these. Could this individual have done a mini community survey to identify the victims of this incident and then bring the matter up via petition to the member of parliament, or to Town Council. What would Town Council be able to do? 

Dialogical Vs Monological

The death of 7 year old Khyra Ishaq in Birmingham as a result of child abuse, brought about great media coverage and public outcry not only due to the nature of the abuse she faced, but also the failure of social service organisations, social workers, and the school in missing out on the opportunity to identify the abuse and prevent this atrocity from happening.  The Birmingham Safeguarding Children Board produced a 180 page serious case review, and determined that the abuse could have been prevented. 

Just Give the Benefit of the Doubt Lah!!!

 

Suspicion seems to be the general impression social service professionals (and disbursers of social assistance) have on whether  a certain person or client is telling the truth, and whether he or she is deserving of financial assistance, especially when information is limited to come up to a strong assessment of whether client really is cash strapped and urgently needs help. As we place ourselves in the role of the Gatekeeper, we fastidiously guard the provision of assistance, a parallel not unlike “the guilty until proven innocent” dogma that seems to informally pervade Singaporean mindsets. After all social problems are individual and family problems, but not due the stagnancy of the wages of the low income, limited options for social mobility, ballooning standards of living, etc, rite?

 

Crying Foul

 

Was reading this article in the New Social Worker Blog about the social worker's role as a whistle blower, and our ethical responsibility in doing so whenever it comes to cases pertaining to child protection and suicidal ideation. The article goes on in stating the role of Social Workers in blowing the whistle whenever social injustices are in play.

First to Bata, then to School

Have officially been matriculated into NUS. Unlike the first time I entered NUS (with all the excitement etc), this time round, I am riddled with anxiety and approach this next phase of education with some degree of apprehension. I attribute this to possibly two main reasons

1. The fear of whether I can effectively juggle work and studies, and yet still have some semblance of recreational life to hold on to.

2. The fact that I have yet to convince myself that the education I receive would value add to my repertoire of skills and knowledge. I think this is the case of most who finish university education, where the pursuit of education is no longer for the sake of owning a degree in the current paper chase. There is already the debate going on about whether Social Work education truly prepares social work graduates to enter the profession, I wonder whether having a Masters' Degree would prepare me further for a senior position in the profession?. 

SWIC 2010

I had the pleasure of facilitating a group of potential workers during the Social Work Induction Camp (SWIC) organized by SASW. I must say that I am pretty impressed by the level of passion and zeal displayed by this batch of students, which is testament to how social work education has progressed through the years. I remember my own batch of students and their willingness to advocate for clients facing social injustice, and think about issues such as integrating theory to practice, and ideas of professional identity.

I won’t fall into the trap of “during my time, things were better” kind of conversation as I really feel that these students have come a long way from previous batches. Sometimes, us social workers may get ourselves bogged down with work, and maybe lose track of the real reasons we join the profession, get drawn into criticisms of self and the social service sector. Every once so often, we should take time to sit back and reflect on our original goals and dreams; and for me, interacting with the participants of this short induction camp was such a process.

Of course, the opportunity to network with fellow peers and more experienced practitioners from different settings in formal and informal discussions proved to be a great opportunity to share challenges, high points, and personal issues in a safe environment. It also serves as a reminder to me of the benefits of having regular professional discussions to improve ourselves and our work with clients.

I’m recharged for the busy week ahead.. Woooo!

Ps: Great job to the organising team who made this camp happen!
 

Dodobird

The recent dearth of posts is attributed to my current unstable internet connection, where I have yet to identify the root cause of the problem.

My initial hypothesis is that the router is the main root (Route? puns anyone?) of the problem (not sure how I came to that conclusion.) But after taking painstaking steps to change the router (thanks to my sis-in-law), the problem still persists.