Social Work Essay

Introduction The role of social workers in society is to help extend opportunities and resources to promote equality and social justice to their clients. A successful social worker’s goal is to positively impact the lives of the most vulnerable individuals in society. In a particular community, the role of the social worker is to represent and advocate for their clients. The social worker uses their expertise and professional skills to improve the quality of life by raising the awareness level of their community’s population. The presence of the social worker in a community is to connect the client in need of the available social services offered to that community. According to Jansson (2016), the presence of social services and community

The day of the community immersion trip, the group of future social workers met at the intersection of Shoreline and Pine Street. This area is right by the Belmont Shore Village. On this immersion trip, the group visited Pine Street, Ocean Blvd, and Anaheim street. The group of future social workers also walked over the bridge and had a view of the Long Beach Port. The Belmont Shore, Pine street, and Ocean boulevard areas are famous tourist destinations. The streets are clean and feel safe. The walk through Anaheim street area was a different experience. The streets were dirty, more small family businesses and homeless individuals were walking the streets of the neighborhood. The abundant presence of fast food restaurants was at every street corner. The houses had bars on the windows and the doors, which is a sign of high crime rates in the

Consequently, a single family household can be faced with financial hardship and by living in a social class below the median household levels. As a social worker, the population poverty rate of (20.6%) is also a concern for the community, where the median housing value is $431,300. Also the (16.8%) persons who live without health insurance is of concern as well. In this community, the other concern of a social worker is the rate of the foreign-born population that is at (26.0%). Assessing the disparities of this community such as the incidence poverty, the persons living without insurance, the immigrants’ rate, and the prevalence of homelessness and crime rates; indicates a need for more programs and social services to help minimize the social class inequality, and to support the vulnerable populations. According to Chong et al. (2014), society must acknowledge that homelessness is prevalent in the vulnerable populations and more programs need to be put in place to make health accessible to these minorities. The walk from the tourist area of Pine Street to the poor neighborhood of Anaheim street was a great learning experience for all the future social workers in the group. The cultural identity of the Anaheim neighborhood is different from the tourist area of Pine Street and Ocean