social work paper

Service Learning: Building Relationships as the Foundation for Interpersonal Helping

Social Work, Park University

BACKGROUND

Social Work is a highly interactional and interpersonal helping profession. As such, skills in engaging service participants (traditionally referred to in the field as “clients”) are essential for effective and efficient intervention. Introduction to Social Work is traditionally the first course taken by students interested in earning their BSW degree.

The service learning component of this course challenges students to experience first-hand the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors which must be consciously harnessed when one person attempts to gain the trust of another in the helping relationship. These skills are especially important at the first meeting as the student assumes the helping role. This skill set is also generalizable to many other fields and disciplines. Social Work faculty assigns this service experience in an effort to empower students to stretch themselves and move beyond their comfort zone.

STUDENT EXPECTATIONS

During the first week of class, you should be considering which social service agency you would like to engage in your learning experience. I strongly recommend that you begin calling and making contacts within your community to explore your options. This gives you the opportunity to make initial contacts with potential service learning venues.

Students are expected to contact the volunteer coordinator at the agency, set up an appointment for an interview, and complete at least 10 hours of face to face service. Five of the ten hours should be served with an individual or family that is currently receiving services/assistance. If face to face contact with program participants is not possible, you must have discussed this with your instructor and been given prior approval for not completing this direct contact. Otherwise, you will lose points towards your experience portion of this assignment.

Social Work is involved with many diverse groups of people who need some type of assistance. The community partners that have become involved with our students reflect this diversity. Some examples of national community partners include such organizations as: Big Brothers & Big Sisters, YMCA & YWCA, Meals on Wheels, Reach Out and Read programs, United Way local community based programming, after school mentor programs, domestic violence shelters, transitional living programs, mental health and medical centers, programs for runaway youth, programming for gay and lesbian youth, and nursing homes.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

The outcomes have been quite gratifying. Students write a seven to ten to page paper summarizing the experience. Several learning themes have emerged. First, many stereotypes that students have held regarding certain groups of people have been exposed and re-thought. For example, one student worked with a young man who struggles with severe and persistent mental illness and commented “I couldn’t believe how smart he was.” Another outcome has been an increase in the students’ own confidence, self awareness, and skills in what we refer to in class as “conversational interviewing skills.” One student stated, “I was so nervous when I first got there, I worried that I might say something that would be really bad. I really relaxed when I realized that they were trying really hard to make me feel comfortable and help me with this assignment. It was really cool.”

There have been several students who have continued their volunteer activity even after the class was over. Through this assignment, we have also developed field practicum affiliations for our senior students with several new agencies. Senior students in Social Work are assigned to an agency with a social worker who serves as their “field instructor” and they are at the agency two full days each week during the entire year. Many of our students get hired as social workers at these agencies immediately upon graduating from Park.

CHALLENGES AND IMPROVEMENTS

There have been some challenges with the service learning requirement. For many of our foreign born students the issues of language and transportation have been evident. In response to this challenge Social Work faculty are seeking to identify agencies that have a diverse population and the attempt will be made to more effectively “match” students with people for whom English is also a second language. We have also encouraged students to work together on this project so that they may share resources, specifically related to transportation.

Based on the success of the service learning assignment in Introduction to Social Work, the Social Work department is currently considering building in a service learning component in the Social Welfare Policy and Programs class. This experience will focus on getting involved with a community initiative that focuses on the agency or community level. Students will be expected to attend a policy/planning meeting and gain first hand knowledge of how social welfare policies are formulated and implemented.

Assignment: Service Learning Project (SLP)

I. Service Learning Experience & Presentation (15 pts)

Students identify a social issue of interest. Students then are expected to contact the volunteer coordinator at a local social service agency that addresses the identified issue. Then, set up an appointment for an interview. This is a good time to research or discover more details about the agency/organization, their mission and what services they provide.

The student will then complete at least 10 hours of face to face service. Five of the ten hours should be served with an individual or family that is currently receiving services/assistance. If face to face contact with program participant is not possible, you must have discussed with instructor and been given approval for not direct contact or you will lose points towards your experience portion of this assignment.

Student is required to have the agency representative email (on agency letterhead or via official agency email address; no yahoo or gmail addresses) a Service Letter of Attendance to the instructor detailing the assigned role/experience and number of hours completed .

The Service Letter of Attendance verifies your experience and is worth 8 points. Without this letter, you will NOT earn the points. Your presentation is the other possible 7 points earned from the experience and presentation portion of your SLP project.

II. Paper (15 pts) - Write a 7-10 page essay that summarizes your reaction and impressions of the Service Learning Project experience. You are not required to use full APA formatting style but must use APA citations. The following aspects must be addressed in your essay.

Guidelines for Service Learning Reflection Paper

Introduction

Body

· Reflect on the societal issue being addressed and population being served. How does the identified issue impact larger society? Compare and contrast cultural issues relative to the target issue.

· Why did you choose your particular service learning agency/population?

· If your choice was merely based on availability and convenience, reflect on why you did not gain an experience with a population that you thought you might enjoy or one that you believed would challenge you to get out of your comfort zone.

· Reflect on your experience as you became oriented to and familiar with the agency, program policies and procedures. 

· What were you thinking at this point?  What were you feeling? 

· Describe the person/people you were assigned to work with.  I want you to write in a manner that gives the reader a detailed, rich visual picture not only of the person but of the context where you met (the surroundings).

· Each of the meetings that you had … how did the meeting begin? What did you talk about? Impressions you had? What do you think they were thinking about you? Describe the process of the meeting, in some detail . . . things you said, things they shared, etc. Reflect on how you were feeling in the beginning of the meetings and any changes that you became aware of during or after the meeting.  Describe all the ways were helpful to the person and/or agency.  How were they helpful to you? Reflect on your last meeting.

· Summarize your experience. 

· Identify Social Work functions, concepts and values that you utilized and give examples from your interactions. Specifically detail how the agency/organization applies and/or how you applied the 7 Core Functions, 6 Core Values, Strengths Perspective and other social work concepts. Was your experience positive or negative? Explain in some detail why you feel this way. What did you learn about yourself? Did the experience serve to dispel or have you re-consider certain biases or stereotypes you may have previously held? What personal beliefs were affirmed through this experience? What did you learn or reaffirm about Social Work? Are there other aspects of this experience that you found meaningful that you have not yet addressed?

Conclusion

Evaluation	Service Learning Project - Paper Rubric
Exceeds Expectations (14-15 pts)	· Clearly understands and articulates the impact of the target issue on society as a whole. · Compares and contrasts cultural issues relative to the target issue.  · Extremely well developed, using clear, applicable and detailed examples. · Quotations conform to APA citation requirements with fewer than 4 errors. · Body of paper is 7-10 pages with meaningful content. Title and Reference pages are additional. · Is double-spaced; has 1-inch margins; has 12-point font
Meets Expectations (11 -13 pts)	· Demonstrates an understanding that the target issue may have a broad impact  · Demonstrates an understanding that there may be cultural differences relative to topic · Is sufficiently developed using adequate examples · Quotations conform to APA citation requirements with no more than 4-6 errors. · Body of paper is 7-10 pages with meaningful content. Title and Reference pages are additional. · Is double-spaced; has 1-inch margins; has 12-point font
Below Expectations (9-10)	· Conclusions are only peripherally related to the impact of the target issue  · Evidence of only minimal understanding of multicultural issues · Is underdeveloped and contains insufficient examples that are not clear · Body of paper is less than 7 pages or missing title and/or Reference pages  · APA style is utilized, but there are 7 or more errors
Unacceptable (0-8 pts)	· Fails to successfully address multicultural issues · Lacks development and poor use of examples. · Body of paper is 4 or fewer pages  · Failure to use APA citation style correctly or at all. It contains no or incorrect quotations. · Correct formatting is not used