Advocacy
Hear Me! I am a Social Worker! (Kat T.)
Being a social worker means being an advocate – for yourself, for your clients, and for justice for all. So, how and when do you use your voice? When I came to BUSSW I thought I was already well “voiced” in advocacy, but in reality, I had a great deal to learn.
Like many, I had the self-advocacy part down, but was struggling to know when and how to use my voice to support others. My first experience advocating for a client came early on in my internship. One of my clients was not a native English speaker and sometimes requested a translation service used over the phone. During one of my first sessions, the supervisor for the program asked that I try to use the service less, since it was costly for the agency. It wasn’t one of those moments where I thought to myself, “Oooh, this is when I say something.” It just came out of me. I asked him if the cost of the service outweighed the benefit of our client understanding the lease she was about to sign. He said, “Of course not!” but suggested I not use it in our normal sessions. Then, I kindly asked him if there were any conversations he had with clients in which he would be okay with not understanding what was going on. Unsure how to respond, he then said that I was right, the service is worth the cost.
Later, I replayed the experience to myself and thought, “Wow, I hope I didn’t do that wrong.” Nervous that I had offended someone in a superior role in the agency, I scheduled to meet with him to discuss it. To my surprise, he said that he had forgotten this part of himself and that he was glad that I had reminded him. Sometimes pushing the envelope is hard, but it is a necessary part of advocating so I welcome all of you to join me and speak up!