SCWK432 - You as an Activist - Video # 2

Community Involvement

SCWK 432: Community Intervention Log

Name   Xavier Arias

Date	Time	Activity
1/31	8am	SCWK432 – Class, I mentioned that I can find out how much t-shirts are at Kmart and Wal-Mart and see if I can get them at a discounted price.
2/14	5pm	Worked at Kmart and looked for sales on T-shirts. I found T- shirts for 11.99 plus my discount, it would be 9.99 for a 6 pack of t-shirts, I emailed professor Boutwell and she suggested to keep looking for a better price.
2/24	3:30pm	Contacted the Bridgewater Independent Newspaper to find out how we can promote our events. I spoke to Terri Hebert, calendar editor/events and she told me that all we needed to do is send her an email with all the information pertaining to the events.
2/28	8am	SCWK432 – Class, We discussed our accomplishments in class with our classmates. We talked about the different things we’ve all done to make sure these events are promoted well and that people attend.
3/5	4pm	Contacted the student newspaper here at Bridgewater State University and spoke to the person in charge of events. They mentioned that we should follow the same procedures as we will with the Bridgewater Independent Newspaper.
3/31	6pm	Contacted Scott and Madonna to see what needed to be done and what I was able to help with.
4/1	6pm	Madonna emailed me the letter to that needed to be faxed and I will be in charge of faxing it.
4/3	2pm	Faxed document
4/9	6-9pm	Attended TAKE BACK THE NIGHT march, and Moakley auditorium (Speakers from New Day). Helped out handling out candles, and collecting candles, as well as hold posters during march.
4/10	2-5pm	Attended the Clothesline Project in East Campus Commons and helped with organizing, informing visitors and assisted with take down at both locations (RCC and ECC).
4/11	9-2pm	Attended the Clothesline Project in East Campus Commons and helped with set-up and providing information to our visitors that walked by. Also, helped develop a list of people whom needed to be thanked for their participation and support during these events.
4/13	6-8:45pm	Vagina Monologues – Participated by helping out sell items and guarding the money. Also, helped out with clean up and bringing materials to SCWK office.
4/23	8-11:05am	Attended Undergraduate Symposium Presentations. Moakley Presentation Center (2nd Floor) 221 and Hart 314, which included a variety of important presentations by Bridgewater State University students.

Community Intervention (April 9 - April 13, 2012)

 

During the week of April 9 through April 13, 2012, our SCWK432 class had so much fun and
accomplished so many things. Bridgewater State University should be very proud to have such an amazing social work department, and to have faculty such as Dr. Bailey and Dr. Boutwell, who though about raising awereness for women victims of any type of violence.

The week started with the Clothesline Project, which helped many women and men, express their feelings by writing on a shirt everything they felt as been victims of domestic violence, or rape. Many students from our class, volunteers and faculty members helped make this event an great one to be remembered.

I had a great time volunteering during the Clothesline Project. I learned many things and I also contributed by painting a shirt and writing about my experiences as a domestic violence survivor at home.

Also, the march during Take Back the Night was absolutely amazing. It was empowering to see so many women and men (wearing heels), walking to raise awereness about violence against women. Many organizations were present, and our distinguished President Dana Mohler-Faria was also present.

Many students spoke in an open mic and expressed their feelings, as well as shared many of their own personal stories, which made it more empowering for those young girls and   older women whom are being victims and are not saying anything because they feel afraid.

Many other events such as movies and wearing purple were also other ways to help raise awareness.

These were very important events and I am so glad I participated.



The week ended with the presentation of the Vagina Monologues, which was a production of New Day, a women's crisis center located in Brockton, MA. Many of our classmates participated in this event and demonstrated how enthusiastic they were and how much talent they have.

Of course, there is always something that can be done next year to make these events even better.
"Communities come together to reduce the level of violence that exists." (Evaluation working groups, 1999) Our community worked very hard to put these events together and the results were absolutely amazing.



"Evaluation is a powerful strategy for distinguishing programs and interventions that make a difference from those that don't. It is a driving force for developing and adapting sound strategies improving existing programs, and demonstrating the results of investments in time and other resources. It also helps determine if what is being done is worth the cost." (Evaluation working groups, 1999) This quotation is very empowering because it tells us how important it is to work together and to plan things so that they have an amazing outcome. I believe that everyone worked really good and we accomplished a lot during these events.

A good evaluation strategy could be to create an online survey for students on campus, including social work students and faculty involved, to determine in a scale of 1(poor) to 5(excellent), how effective was communication between students, how organized everything was, how was the information provided, and how well it was explained to our visitors, and also how professional each student was during the events.

Newspapers, online and printed should be read to ensure that all information faxed was accurately published, and if not, make sure next time it will be. It is also important to obtain information from the faculty that volunteered during this week. They will give us some tips on how well we did everything and what things can we improve.

I am so happy to be part of the social work department and be involved in these events. I learned a lot about violence agaisnt women and now as a male, I would never put my hands on a woman, because I respect every single one of them.

I learned that I am able to work with other classmates. I am very organized when it comes to setting up, and I am very enthusiastic and demonstrate empathy.

I absolutely love the article provided by Dr. Boutwell which talks about being active. I absoletly agree that "Active being is listening to myself and listening to my community and physically putting my body where it needs to be." We all need to listen in order to follow instructions and make things easier among our group. It is also mentioned in this article that creativity is important, which I absolutely love. I love being creative and asking my group leaders or professor for tasks that need to be completed, this helps the group and it makes this easier for everyone.

Being a senior in college and as a member of this community, I encourage other SCWK432 students and faculty members all over the school, to please participate in these events because they help raise awareness for violence against women.

Communication is very important. Always express your feelings and yout ideas to your classmates and professor because every opinion matters and maybe yours will be the one to make a change. Also, taking every ones ideas into consideration is important. Provide an equal amount for everone in the group and have a leader who directs the group.


Ten important things to know when working in a group for a Macro setting (This class):

1) Communication
2) Creativity
3) Leadership
4) Participation - Everyone should participate equally!!!
5) Brainstorming
6) Enthusiam
7) Always ask questions!!
8) Organization
9) Advice
10) Contribution

Enjoy SCWK432, You will learn a LOT!!!!!!!



PHOTOGRAPHY CREDITS: Madonna LaRoque

Approaches to Macro Work

I really appreciate that Dr. Boutwell gave us this assignment because it helped me become more aware of the many things that are happening in our world and to be more informed on how to be a better social worker and practice macro work.

Now, I hope that by reading my blogpost you will all learn something new that you did not know about.


Kony 2012 and Aid-Based Approaches

The video profiles Joseph Kony, a Ugandan rebel leader of the Lord's Resistance Army (L.R.A.), as the world's number one criminal, requesting global action to 'stop Kony' at any cost. To do this, primarily US military intervention will be required. The video mentions so many important things that we need to be more aware of. Facebook is part of today's social media and it is an important way to communicate not only national but also internationally with others and discuss issued pertaining to our world and its social injustices. It is not fair that Joseph Kony has chosen for 26 years how people are going to die and who kills those people. Girls are sex slaves and Boys are soldiers trained to use guns and kill others, even their own parents. "Every single person does not choose where, how and when they are born, but if they are born is because they matter." We are all here for a reason, and as social workers we should feel happy that we chose to help those who are in need.



This is why Invisible Children, an aid-based approach was created to make people aware of Kony's criminal acts. The massive campaign included celebrities such as George Clooney and P.Diddy and a wide array of campaign products including 'stop Kony' iPad covers, bracelettes, and posters; however, as the global hysteria against Kony has grown louder, many have begun to criticize Invisible Children's intentions and approach, because they believe that Ugandans should have more leadership and have their voices heard.

According to the article, "You Don't Have My Vote", Invisible Children’s US staff is comprised exclusively of Americans, as is the entire Board. Ugandan's are not represented in this campaign. "Couldn’t the organization find a single Ugandan?"  As social workers, and Macro Practicioners we should understand and agree that if we are going to fight for a group of people for example gays/lesbians, in this case Uganda, you must make it a priority to engage the voices of the affected population in a real and meaningful way. "The problem here is the lack of balance on who speaks for Uganda (and Africa)".

Kony 2012 - Is not a Revolution

I agree with most of the things that this article is mentioning. I agree that us as social workers and activists' shouldn't choose and assume what is best for others. Instead, we should help them use our social media to help them realize they have a voice, and we shouldn't dare assume we know what's best for them.

I absolutely love how a community was started on facebook about this issue and the more people that joined, the better because it shows that people care. "Where you live shouldn't determine whether you live".



Please watch the following video about how people feel about Kony 2012 and how they believe that it is a SCAM!!

Please comment!!


We obviously have different opinions about this issue, but please listen carefully to her words and try to think of how bad it would be if this was really a SCAM and this problem should have been addressed many years ago just like the articles mention. The articles say that Ugandan's have never been invisible because they've always been there and this problem has always been there.





Pray the Devil Back to Hell- a story about a group of Liberian women determined to fight for their freedom, children and country, even if it meant losing their own lives. In this film, one of the older women says, "peace is not an event, it is a process." I believe that. Going back to Kony 2012, if the Kony Movement teaches us nothing else, I hope it at least teaches us that when peace and justice become a facebook fad, we lose touch of the main fact that it is always about humanity. When that happens, it "becomes our responsibility to be resistant and bring humanity back to the forefront." This is why we as social workers have the responsibility to try to make our world a better one and a safer and peaceful one.

We should all treat each other with respect and love each other because God created us all equal!

WORLD PEACE!

Dudley Street Initiative & Holding Ground

The Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative (DSNI) is a nonprofit community-based planning and organizing entity rooted in the Roxbury/North Dorchester neighborhoods of Boston. DSNI's approach to neighborhood revitalization is comprehensive including economic, human, physical, and environmental growth. It was formed in 1984 when residents of the Dudley Street area came together out of fear and anger to revive their neighborhood that was devastated by arson, disinvestment, neglect and redlining practices, and protect it from outside speculators. (http://www.roxburyculturalnetwork.org/#/dsni/4533185245)

Holding Ground:

I absolutely love how the film starts with a clip of Martin Luther King declaring, "Boston must conduct the creative experiments and the abolition of ghettos which will point the way to other communities." I love this statement because we should have safe communties free of people that do not contribute and that do not care about us. The video presents a history of this Boston neighborhood and its various ethnic groups, from the Irish and Italians who settled there earlier in the century to the immigrants from the Cape Verdean Islands and American blacks who moved in while post World War II mortgage programs helped white residents move out to the suburbs.



The video also talks about DSNI's early phases, when the initiative grew out of residents' anger at being excluded from a plan to redevelop the community.  Dudley Street residents were interviewed, as well as community development professionals, and Boston city officials. This is important because we should have the residents opinions. The film also highlights the progression of the initiative, from residents' taking ownership of the community planning process and working to clean up the problem of illegal garbage dumping and to DSNI's securing eminent domain power to take over abandoned land for housing development.



Change Agents

CHANGE AGENTS



David Oaks



Since 1976, David W. Oaks, Executive Director of Mindfreedom International, has been an activist for human rights. Other than being an activist, Oaks is also a psychiatric survivor. Oaks was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1955 with his working class parents, who were immigrants from Lithuania. After graduating high school, Oaks, despite undergoing some mental health care, continued his education to Harvard University on a scholarship in the 1970’s. At this point in his life during the mental health care, Oaks experienced what it means to be in the psychiatric system by being placed in psychiatric institutions five times throughout his sophomore, junior, and senior years at Harvard University. This is significant to the work he contributes to in mental health care later on in his life because he experiences what he is helping others deal with. Personal experience is an important trait to have because of the understanding and knowledge one will have with others that is in need of the same help. Oaks was diagnosed with both “schizophrenic” and “bipolar” disorders. What more, Oaks underwent forced psychiatric drugging and solitary confinement (http://www.mindfreedom.org/about-us/david-w-oaks ).  Due to such sever treatment and experience, there’s no wonder why Oaks would become an activist to  that  others can avoid such treatments and gain proper mental health care. Many times, the greatest activists are those that have also experienced what they are trying to prevent or help others with. Despite the difficulties Oaks faced with mental treatment, Oaks has been off psychiatric drugs since 1977 with the help and support of his friends and family, and also with the use of exercise, nutrition, counseling, wilderness trips and employment. With such tools, Oaks was able to restore his mental and emotional well-being, which is exactly what he works at achieving for others struggling with their mental health. 

            Furthermore, apart from his difficult past, the Mental Patients Liberation Front (MPLF) was one of David’s first activisms later on in his life. MPLF is a psychiatric survivor human rights organization where Oaks volunteered.  Later in life, Oaks helped form one of the first user-run psychiatric survivor activist drop-in centers with the Mental Patients Liberation Front (MPLF).  As well as his activist work in the field of human rights in the mental health system, Oaks has also worked in the environmental, peace and social justice movements (http://www.mindfreedom.org/about-us/david-w-oaks). To add to his involvments, Oaks has worked and researched on many issues concerning mental health, such as “community organizes for independent systems change in the mental health system” with a diverse range of participants, including Chile, Norway, Ireland and throughout the United States of America. In 1986, Oaks helped found what has become MindFreedom International; this is an independent activist coalition united to win human rights and alternatives in mental health. MindFreedom International is now one of the main organizations winning campaigns for the vision of a peaceful revolution in the mental health system (http://www.mindfreedom.org/about-us/david-w-oaks). 

            Too add, one of the community problems/social issues confronted in life by David Oaks is the “Mad Pride” movement (MindFreedom), which is a campaign that rejects the biomedical model that defines contemporary psychiatry.  According to “Mad Pride”, mental illness is caused by severe emotional distress, often combined with lack of socialization. However, “Mad Pride” does not agree with the use and sale of prescription drugs, which have doubled since 1998 (Davis, 2003). Oaks believes that there is no evidence to dispute the medical-scientific model of mental illness. Oaks also stresses that he does have self-reflect evidence about his recovery from mental illness, often accomplished by not taking medication. “Boycott Normal” is one the latest campaign by MindFreedom International to show there is hope for those given psychiatric labels that often use when those found to have mental health issues are prescribed medications. There is life after labels, and life after psychiatric drugging, which Oaks works to help others find as he did. (http://www.mindfreedom.org/campaign/boycott-normal). Campaigns, like “Mad Pride” give young people hope, because it also helps them understand that who they are is not determined by their mental disorder, our mentality should not define who they are. Such campaigns, like “Mad Pride” bring awareness to the psychiatric drug usage in the United States. What Oaks and campaigns like “Mad Pride” try to convey is that medication is not always the answer for one’s problems. What Oaks represent through his personal mental health struggles and life work is that there is help out there and this is why social workers work for, to help others become more aware of social issues happening in our world.

Nawal Nour

            Aside from David Oaks, another important activist and founder of the African Women’s Health Center, physician, and an advocate for the elimination of female circumcision is Nawal Nour. Nour is originally from Sudan and has been aware of this cultural practice since her childhood.  Female genital cutting is certainly a community problem because of the dangers to women’s health and well-being in its physical and mental damage it poses, and Dr. Nour sees it as both a health and human rights issue.

Nour stated that about 170,000 girls and women in the United States are "at risk" or have undergone female genital cutting, even though it was outlawed by Congress in 1997 (Mehren,2004). According to the World Health Organization, about 140 million girls and women worldwide has either already undergone some form of female genital excision or will have before reaching adulthood. Nour launched the African Women's Health Practice at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital in 1999, and won a MacArthur "genius" fellowship to help her continue the work of helping women who have undergone female genital cutting and spread awareness of the health risks of such practices in the past year (Mehren, 2004). Nour found herself increasingly involved in the lives of refugees while educating and spreading awareness of the health risks of this tradition, from Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan and other countries where female circumcision was common. She heard stories about African women in the United States who refused to seek medical treatment because doctors here either were horrified or turned the women into teaching objects. Much like Oaks spreading awareness of other possibilities to mental health other than through medications, Dr. Nour is fighting to raise awareness for African women on getting health care after having the genital cutting done, and also to bring awareness of the health factors and dangers of such a tradition. With awareness, this tradition can be reconsidered by others in the communities that follow such a tradition, thus preventing any more health risks to other women.

Moreover, Dr. Nour educates women who have been circumcised and their partners and lets them know that reconstruction is available and the procedures that they would go through.  It is important to make these women feel comfortable by building a relationship with them, because women could then share anything pertaining to this issue and also because of her familiarity with the cultural traditions.  Dr. Nour is changing the thoughts of pregnant African women circumcising their daughters at such an early age, which is not only widely supported, but also demonstrates how Nour is an activist for human rights. It is important that this serious human rights issue that has been going on for so many years stops, because this is degrading women.

To add, domestic violence is a social issue that actually hits close to home for me because of the verbal domestic violence at home for the past 6 years.  Domestic violence can be defined as a pattern of behavior in any relationship that is used to gain or maintain power and control over an intimate partner. (http://www.thehotline.org/get-educated/what-is-domestic-violence/) My father had verbally abused me and my family since we immigrated to the United States in 2002. He was incarcerated and deported for this. This was a very difficult and life affecting time in my life. Much like Nour and very much like Oaks, being personal exposed and involved in an issue others face makes me drive to helping others, especially having experienced it myself.

Besides my personal concern for domestic violence, according to domestic violence statistics in 2010, domestic violence is the leading cause of injury in women more than car accidents, muggings, and rapes combined. In the United States alone every 9 seconds a women is assaulted or beaten.   It is important to support these women in all aspects, psychologically, mentally and physically; because women could then feel safe and confident to share their experiences and move on with their lives. I strongly feel that my personal experience can help me with guiding others in the right direction because of the understanding I have in relations to similar struggles.

Much like the activists previously mentioned, some of my personal strengths that lead me to have strong leadership skills are that I am motivated, sympathetic, sensitive and non-judgmental. I strongly believe that I am an advocate for social justice. Like Oaks and Nour,  I am always willing to fight for the client’s rights because we are all created equal. Also, being an immigrant, having a disabled brother, and having a mother who was a victim of domestic violence, had a huge impact on my decision to become a social worker.

Overall, this change agents assignment has helped me explore and obtain a better understanding of the great work that these two activists have done for our society. It is also important to be committed, compassionate, considerate and dedicated in order to be able to make a change in our world.  Without people like Dr. Nour and David Oaks, this world would never change for the better.  It gives hope to the ones who are struggling because there is hope for a better way.  Every type of abuse should be addressed and work towards in ending, including domestic violence, which should not happen to anybody. Unfortunately, issues like domestic violence do occur, and when it does, there is help, which I hope to be a part of. (http://www.domesticviolence.org/)

Worked Cited

Davis, David. (2003). Losing the Mind: David Oaks and Others in the ‘Mad Pride’ Movement Believe Drugs Are Being Overused in Treating Mental Illness, and They Want the Abuse to Stop.  Los Angeles Times Sunday Magazine, Retrieved from http:// www.latimes.com

Mehren, Elizabeth. (2004). Patients Embrace Culturally Sensitive Care. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved from http://articles.latimes.com/2004/jun/02/nation/na-doc2

Mindfreedom International. About David W. Oaks, Mindfreedom International Executive Director.  Retrieved from http://www.mindfreedom.org/about-us/david-w-oaks

Mindfreedom International. Mindfreedom Launches Campaign to “Boycott Normal”. Retrieved from http:// http://www.mindfreedom.org/campaign/boycott-normal

Mindfreedom International. About David W. Oaks, Mindfreedom International Executive Director. 

                Retrieved from http://www.recoveryxchange.org/DavidOaks.html

SCWK432- You as an Activist Video # 1