Social workers play the roles of community organizers, educators, and facilitators as they deal with the members of society. A community organizer mobilizes people to group themselves into distinct clusters that are easily manageable to ensure they get and access all social amenities intended for them. As an educator, a social worker informs and creates awareness amongst the members of the society (Ferguson, 2018).
The social worker educates the society about different topics with the aim of improving knowledge about issues affecting them while also recognizing that some marginalized groups need a constant reminder. As a facilitator, a social worker gathers people together for a common course and ensures that all persons intended to get benefit access the relevant assistance they need. The justification for selecting the community organizer, educator, and facilitator roles for social workers is because they are some of the immediate tasks individuals handling societal activities handle (Goldkind et al., 2016). Social workers deal with various people in the society who live in different locations and must master their residence to facilitate the assistance they want to give them.
I have learned that social workers are important since they help improve the quality of life people facing different problems face. They do this by identifying the specific issue for each individual or family, discuss with them the best strategy to use to arrive at a solution, and then acts as the facilitators to provide the help. Prior to taking this course, I did not understand that social workers play a pivotal role in society as they not only handle personal matters, but also family-related issues (Goldkind et al., 2016). Families are important units for society as children get nurtured by the adults they live with, who must be healthy psychologically, emotionally, socially, and financially to support their offspring.
I see myself incorporating the roles of community organizer, educator, and facilitator in my future social work practice by ensuring I possess people skills that will enhance the relationship I initiate and maintain with them. I now have a better understanding that people have high expectations of social workers to help solve issues they face. For instance, as an educator, a social worker is expected to be knowledgeable in different subjects such that when a community member asks them, they are in a position to correctly answer and provide them with guidance or a solution. A facilitator ensures that all plans are made and implemented within the stipulated time and that the intended audience gets the assistance they need (Ferguson, 2018). I also intend to continually improve my skills to meet the unexpected demands.
Other insights about social work macro practice that are relevant include acting as a leader in all capacities. The society perceives social workers as informed persons that know and understand what is expected of them, which means they must act and behave like leaders (Ferguson, 2018). Transformational leadership style, when adopted by social workers, is likely to trigger more positive results in the society since they would be concerned about introducing changes for the collective benefit of all individuals. Arguably, social workers in macro social work practice belong to different boards which are all actively involved in developing solutions for the community. As a board member, social workers must possess creative, rational, and critical thinking skills which are all important to facilitate the brainstorming sessions to come up with ideas.
References
Ferguson, H. (2018). How social workers reflect in action and when and why they don’t: The possibilities and limits to reflective practice in social work. Social Work Education, 37(4), 415-427. Web.
Goldkind, L., Wolf, L., & Jones, J. (2016). Late adapters? How social workers acquire knowledge and skills about technology tools. Journal of Technology in Human Services, 34(4), 338-358. Web.