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Faith based initiatives–a time that has come?

March 4, 2005 By pia

And I am copying this and putting it into an email to the social workers at my job who struggle each day to make ends meet while serving the needs of the elderly, people living with HIV/AIDS, children and the poor. There are no federal grants here, just a few foundation grants and a lot of private donations.

Frstlyml on my post: Some questions about faith based programs.

There is another thread going to this same discussion at Dingo’s site.

I wrote my post out of honest confusion. I’m not opposed to faith based initiatives, if they provide a needed service that nobody else is willing to do.

My questions still stand and I hope that you read my post, but I will simplify it:

After the 1994 election, Newt Gingrich was able to pass his Contract with America

This changed many welfare programs, and many other social service programs.

Faith based initiativesmight partially be a result of this.

It’s difficult to live on a social worker’s salary, though many social workers have a graduate school education, have done much field work, take post grad courses, and have to live. This could include paying back student loans, rent and/or a mortgage and much more.

If you feel that Newt’s Contract with America was smart, how is funding religious charities any less of an entitlement?

Taking this one step further, do you feel that social work is a valid profession or a job that anybody with common sense could do.

Say a social worker finds two homeless people, gets them to a shelter, provides concrete services and counseling. One person begins working for a foundation that has her cleaning streets. She then takes her job seriously, gets a job in private industry, regains custody of her her children, as she has found an apartment that they can live in, and is no longer getting high. (This is very simplified.)

The other person goes to the shelter, and begins working for the foundation. She has a host of behavioral problems, can’t get along with her co-workers, and goes back to the streets. One day she flings a knife at somebody, and accidentally kills that person. (Again this is highly simplified.)

Do you feel that the social worker should have foreseen the later person’s problems and that the first person’s success was or wasn’t due to counseling?

Do you feel that a volunteer with some training can provide counseling to a homeless person?

Would you hold the volunteer to the same standards that you would hold the social worker to?

If I changed the example to one about a child who might or might not be abused, would you think that a volunteer could handle the situation?

Would you want a social worker to be in charge of all cases involving children?

What do you think of social work in general?

Again this is not a loaded question but one I have spent much time pondering. I am including it in faith based initiativesbecause they seem to be the way many social service programs will go in the next four years.

I included Millicent’s comment because that’s how many social workers feel.

Filed Under: mental health Tagged With: Aging, If I'm not Christian, am I still an American?

« Comments back and running–over 25,000 hits since 11/13
Um and uh girls »

Comments

  1. Hammertime says

    March 4, 2005 at 11:14 pm

    Pia,
    I think that volunteers, or paid employess, would work as well as government agencies. Government social workers failed with my family. They ask things to ‘parents’ in custody battles like, “what would you make him for breakfast”, and are satisied with a simple answer.

    I don’t know that faith-based initiatives should receive government funds, as it allows the average person to feel they don’t need to support them. That said, if the government is going to fund social welfare, it is likely done best by those who are doing it out of a heart for people, and not for a paycheck.

    I have seen what ‘social work’ major take for college courses. “War & genocide against women”? Please. They are no more qualified by that degree than a history major.

  2. Pia says

    March 4, 2005 at 11:57 pm

    I’m sorry about your experiences.

    I spent two years in grad school, where I only took courses relevant to social work as I was going for Masters in Social Work, did a 21 hour a week internship, that I received supervision in, and passed a state test for certification (now licensing).

    I agree that many classes might be motivated by the political/social agenda de jour.

    Other classes stressed social work techniques, theories, counseling, and “schools” of social work–such as treating a person in the context of his enviornment, without any political/social agenda. (Again this is simplified.)

    Prior to going to school I had been a government employee; I was an SSI Claims Rep, so I was knowledgable in city, state, and federal concrete services.

    Would this make a difference to you?

    A person can have a great heart and is volunteering for truly altuistic purposes, but no instinctual feel as to how to help a person, even after some training.

    Another person in the same situation might have an instinctual feel and do a great job, but have a religious agenda that she subtly pushes onto a person.

    I’m using extremes, but there’s everything in between.

    Again this isn’t a loaded question. I am honestly confused.

  3. Mac says

    March 5, 2005 at 3:26 am

    I open BE and there’s your irresistable mast head. “Faith-based initiatives” have always pushed my buttons too. It may shock Dubmya to hear it, but Islamic fundamentalists think of themselves as a “faith-based initiative.”

    Keep ’em comin’. Looking forward to dinner.

  4. Janet says

    March 5, 2005 at 3:36 am

    Faith-based initiatives bug me. Anything could be a faith-based initiative, whether its actually a helpful service or some kind of terrorist type group. Also, I worry about people being turned away from faith-based groups because the people won’t go along with the religious aspects.

  5. John says

    March 5, 2005 at 7:40 am

    You truly are not an American if you are not either a Christian or a Jew. Get a life and join in. It’s great in here. And remember that Christians are not trying to kill millions of us like some Muslims are.

  6. JJB says

    March 5, 2005 at 8:38 am

    Nice blog!

    I found you on blog explosion.

    Keep up the good work!

    Begalke

  7. Pia says

    March 5, 2005 at 9:34 am

    Thanks Begalke, and the rest of you.

    John what are you trying to say?

    Did I say I was neither Christian nor Jew?

    Did I say anything anti-Christian?

    Did I say anything pro-Muslim?

    I was asking some basic questions about faith based initiatives and social work.

    If anything I might have sounded as if I was questioning the social work profession.

    My post was not at all political in nature. It weighed two different alternatives.

    So read a post before you embarrass yourself further with an incredibly insipid comment.

    Join you in lala land? I don’t think so.

  8. Hammertime says

    March 6, 2005 at 5:52 am

    Pia,
    Of course, you recognized that you were presenting the extreme examples – and the choice is obvious, given those extreme examples. I would ALWAYS want someone with your level of education in social work, AND a heart for people.
    In review, I also presented some extremes. I guess I am torn in two ways – one, I am upset that people feel they don’t need to help those in need, and I recognize that a significant porion of that feeling is a result of government programs designed to help. I also recognize that no program can ever solve all of the social ills it attempts to address.

    I have a similar paradox with faith based initiatives. I feel they should have the opportunity to do their work free of governmental intrusion in to their proselytization, because they should be able to proselytize as they wish…but not on tax dollars. Perhaps the current, flawed, system, is best.

  9. Pia says

    March 6, 2005 at 8:04 am

    thanks for that really insightful comment. Ynfortunately my level of education is the norm for many social workers in social service programs.

    I’m spent so I’m not even going to try to edit my thoughts.

    I believe that most graduate social work schools accept students who shouldn’t have even graduated college as they can’t write a half decent sentence, think of an original idea, or read to expand their thought processes.

    My school accepted people like me quite readily because they knew we would do all the work, lead the classes, do well in our field placement, and pass the licensing exam. Therefore we would keep their ranking high.

    The Gingrich sweep changed things even more. I had planned to work as a family therapist helping older families.

    It was very disillusioning.

    I plan on writing a post explaining this and more.

    Thank you very much.

  10. green-eyed lady says

    March 6, 2005 at 2:40 pm

    I’m looking forward to that post. 🙂

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I live in the South, not South Florida, a few blocks from the ocean, and two blocks from the main street. It's called Main Street. Amazes me too.

I'm from New York. I mostly lived in the Mid-Upper East Side, and the heart of the Upper West Side. It amazes me when people talk about how scared they were of Times Square in the 1970's and 1980's.

As my mother said: "know the streets, look out and you'll be fine."

What was scary was the invasion of the crack dens into "good buildings in good 'hoods." And the greedy landlords who did everything they could to get good tenants out of buildings.

I'm a Long Island girl, and proud of it now.
Then I hated everything about the suburbs. Yet somehow I lived in a few great Long Island Sound towns after high school.

Go to archives "August 2004" if you want to begin with the first posts.

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